Many governments worldwide have dramatically increased resources devoted to improving educational quality. However, by concentrating on inputs and ignoring incentives within schools, resources have resulted in little overall improvement in student achievement. Reviews U.S. and international evidence on the effectiveness of such input policies,…

Surveys costs of education in China, focusing on three areas: national expenditures on education; unit cost of education; and educational cost functions. Relates the analysis of education costs to four enduring policy issues: resource mobilization, inequality, inequity, and inefficiency. Compared with other Asian countries, China's public…

Reviews four publications comprising a vivid testimony to current dilemmas and challenges facing reconstruction of Palestinian education. Critical policy issues have arisen concerning the broader meanings attached to educational resources and their relation to economic and civil opportunities. National-collective issues have eclipsed equity and…

Examines the relationship between special educational needs and resource levels, drawing on two local education authorities as case studies. One LEA uses a professional-audit approach to allocate resources; the other uses educational tests. A critical examination disclosed benefits and drawbacks for each accountability system. (Contains 18…

During the last few decades, the concept of equivalence has assumed an increasingly important role in Swedish educational policy, and at the same time the actual meaning of equivalence has been given different authoritative interpretations. The shift in significance which the concept has undergone seems to be not only an aspect of the social power…

In this article, the author discusses how school boards are facing increasing pressures to shift scarce resources from the area of arts education to stress the areas of math and reading. In a report issued by the National Association of State Boards of Education, the Complete Curriculum expresses concerns with regard to the de-emphasis of arts and…

For those concerned with school improvement, resource-oriented mechanisms are a critical facet of efforts to transform and restructure daily operations. Resource-oriented organizational mechanisms focus specifically on ensuring the appropriate use of existing resources and enhancing efforts to address barriers to student learning. This report…

This paper critically examines the array of policy approaches that have been adopted in the field of special needs education in Scotland over recent years. These are characterized in the following ways: (1) supporting or changing the child--an individualized approach; (2) making schools inclusive for all--a systems approach; (3) challenging the…

The current debate about class size is not centered on whether smaller class sizes are desirable. Rather, the debate is whether the costs involved are the best ways to spend taxpayers' monies. This analysis addresses this question for the state of Florida. Using the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test as a measure of educational achievement, a…

The school effectiveness experiences of urban public school systems in America serve as a pivotal means of developing understanding of the potential for success inherent in school improvement strategies. The school effectiveness movement began in the mid-1960s with researchers such as Coleman, Jencks, and Jensen. Aggregated quantitative data…

The vocational education research and development (R & D) provisions in Public Law 94-482, the Education Amendments Act of 1976, are the primary focus of this commentary by the counsel and staff director of the Subcommittee on Elementary, Secondary, and Vocational Education of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Education and Labor.…

Discusses equality in education within the framework of the ideas of John Rawls, asserting that even though in the real world it is not easy to implement his version of equality and justice without endangering his prior principle of liberty, he provides a philosophical foundation for the reconsideration of the meritocratic principle. (Author/JM)

The educational administrator must often straddle the gap between empirically sound and politically expedient decisions, employing policy assessment as a hedge against adopting ill-conceived policies. The resource allocation model (RAM) attempts to remedy this dilemma by tying program evaluation and policy analysis into a single conceptual yet…

Political influences on public universities are discussed, including characteristics of government intervention such as budget formulas, buffer groups and technocratic staffs, and special interest lobbying. Also considered are avenues for public universities to achieve more privatization, making universities more useful to government and society,…

This collection of papers provides decision-makers with tools to improve resource allocation. The two primary tools, or modes, are cost-effective analysis and cost-benefit analysis, which researchers in education have devised and refined. This volume has three main goals, all intended to help decision-makers construct a useful research program:…