The Alberta Initiative for School Improvement (AISI) is being implemented in Alberta school jurisdictions and charter schools in the 2000-01 school year. While the "Framework for the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement," December 1999, provides the AISI background, goals, principles, considerations, clarifications, and…

This publication provides a detailed look at public education in Texas for the 1998-1999 school year. It provides the basic information needed to examine the differences among school districts and to assess their relative strengths and weaknesses. "Snapshot '99" begins with an overview of education at the state level, followed by the…

This publication provides a detailed look at public education in Texas for the 1997-98 school year. Published annually since 1987-88, "Snapshot" presents a broad range of information about the state's 3,891,988 students, its teachers, and its schools. It begins with a statistical overview of education at the state level. This overview…

An Economic Institute study concludes that real per-pupil spending between 1967 and 1991 increased by 61%. Regular education's share declined from 80% to 59%. The biggest "squeaky wheel" is special education, followed by bilingual education, alternative instruction, dropout prevention, school lunch, and higher education Pell grants. The…

Pioneer district/charter-school contracts try to balance the quest for autonomy with accountability requirements. Districts' experiences in three states (Colorado, Oregon, and Wisconsin) and their chosen navigation tools offer clues to developing productive processes and relationships for negotiating successful contracts. A sidebar defines the…

Argues that public schools must change their underlying culture and rules to benefit from competition from charter schools and voucher programs. Discusses differences between educational marketplace and traditional economic models, finding schools less responsive to competitive pressures. Analyzes factors constraining competition and offers…

Education Resource Strategies (ERS) works with school and district leaders to help them more strategically use resources--people, time, and money--to improve student performance. They have found that many school districts begin creating small high schools without a clear sense of how much they will spend or how to ensure that small schools…

In 1998, The Cleveland Foundation developed a strategy to support select Cleveland area charter schools as part of its commitment to local school reform. The Cleveland Foundation provided start-up funding to four charter schools it deemed both promising and viable. In 2000, The Cleveland Foundation contracted with The Evaluation Center to provide…

The 2004-05 school year was tumultuous for charter schools, marked by dueling studies with conflicting conclusions on whether charter schools boost student performance or hinder it. Even before this dustup occurred, a consortium of foundations decided to support a new national research center to raise the standard of research on charter schools…

In this final report of a 3-year evaluation, researchers explored the developing infrastructure in New York City charter schools and identified areas in which school stakeholders--private partners, boards of trustees, school leaders, parents, and teachers--needed support to help charter schools succeed. The study was based on monthly visits to…

The Alberta Initiative for School Improvement (AISI) is being implemented in Alberta school jurisdictions and charter schools in the 2000-01 school year. While the "Framework for the Alberta Initiative for School Improvement," December 1999, provides the AISI background, goals, principles, considerations, clarifications, and…

This monograph presents the results of the seventh annual survey of state school finance legislation with an overview of legislation passed in 2000, abstracts of all bills passed, and a trend analysis dating back to 1994, including both established and emergent trends. Established trends in the funding areas of educational technology, school…

Despite the rosy image projected by child-centered reformers, zealots and profiteers are really driving the charter school movement. Charter schools cannot flourish without drastic wage reductions or huge spending increases, nor will they benefit America's poorest children. The market, which has already destroyed kids' neighborhoods and parents'…

In Physics "critical mass" refers to the minimum amount of fissionable material required to sustain a chain reaction. The adoption of state education policy isn't often equated with this concept, but occasionally solutions and ideas seem to gather around a common problem. If the solution at hand is simple, easily understood, and…

Because federal law offers little guidance for continually-failing schools, the Center on Education Policy (CEP) conducted a study from August 2006 to January 2007 in Michigan to explore questions of what happens after restructuring, particularly to schools that continue to fail to meet achievement targets. Because it had an accountability system…