This volume contains two reports whose aim is the improvement of the resource allocation system for public schools in Washington, D.C. The first report is a description of issues to be considered and decisions required for developing a resource allocation plan for equalization of aid. Information dealing with the history of school finance reform,…

Education is faced with a declining resource base coupled with overwhelming demands for categorical programs. The current resource allocation strategy common to all systems is cutting spending. The difference between large and small districts is less important than differences in complexity. Complexity in resource allocations is more a function of…

Budgetmaking and bargaining are central resource allocation processes in schools; this study examines how they affect one another. Ethnoscientific techniques were applied in nine Illinois school systems. The results were analyzed to show the flow of the decision process and construction of detailed plans of action. The structure and power…

As a base for evaluating the need for further federal involvement in school finance, this study examines changes that have taken place in the distribution of resources within the states. It examines the effectiveness of school finance reform solely in terms of results--the resource levels made available in the school districts of a state and the…

Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the largest Federal aid-to-education program, was passed in 1965 to provide financial assistance to local school districts in planning and operating special programs for educationally deprived children. It is a supplementary program, designed to upgrade the educational opportunities of…

This study reviews the following problem areas: the flow of reports and information to the school committee from outside agencies and staff; evaluation of educational programs and personnel using in part the "deans' study" of the promotion system; present treatment of community relations and participation and the staffing for…

In these hearings, the following witnesses presented testimony: Dr. Edward B. Fort, superintendent, Inkster Public Schools; Dr. Norman Drachler, former school superintendent, Detroit; Raymond Sreboth, superintendent, Benton Harbor Area Schools; Richard Ziehmer, superintendent, Covert Public Schools; Edward C. McKinney, superintendent, Baldwin…

This paper discusses a technique for evaluating the comprehensiveness, feasibility and viability of project models. The developed technique is based on the assumption that a school staffing model is an organizational pattern demonstrating certain specific characteristics. A method for describing these characteristics has also been developed as a…

The National Center for Education Statistics commissioned the papers in this publication to address education-finance issues of interest to the education-finance community. Although teacher salaries rose between 1980 and 1997 by 120 percent, that is only equal to a 19 percent increase after removing inflation, or a little over 1 percent per year.…

Through a Pennsylvania statewide curriculum integration project involving 11 school districts, this research examines the curriculum reform process and determines which factors, or combination of factors, are absolutely essential for successful curriculum reform. Comparing programs and their respective levels of success makes it clear that only a…

The Children At Risk program was created in Wisconsin in 1985 with the broad goal of reducing the number of students at risk of failing in or dropping out of school. The program requires all school districts to identify children at risk, including dropouts, truants, parents, or adjudicated delinquents, who are behind their age group in either…

This early look at the E-Rate is part of a new initiative, funded by the Department of Education, and is based on an analysis of E-Rate administrative records covering the first two years of program operation, that were linked to detailed national data on all public and private schools and libraries in the U.S. Key findings indicate that public…

The term "authorizer" conveys an imposing sense of size and authority, but in the world of charter schools, the authorizer is often a small-scale office or, more commonly, a single employee for whom chartering is just one among many responsibilities amidst a large institution like a state or local board of education, university, or private…

Describes budgetary authority at the federal, state, school district, and school site levels, discussing spending patterns and reviewing research on site-based management. In spite of great differences among districts, most are remarkably similar in allotting 60% to 63% of their budgets to instruction and dividing the rest among student services…

In school finance lawsuits plaintiffs often claim that pay levels are not sufficient to recruit teachers who can deliver constitutionally-mandated levels of educational services. In this paper I consider several ways in which one might bring economic theory and data to bear on that question. I conclude that at present, and at least for the near…