The eight issues for volume 6 of the "CEC Today," a newsletter exclusively for members of the Council for Exceptional Children, include the following featured articles: (1) "How To Set up a Classroom on a Tight Budget"; (2) "Survival Tips for First-Year Teachers"; (3) Get the Training You Need To Stay Ahead of the…

In 1991, Massachusetts passed an interdistrict choice law that gave parents the option of enrolling their child in any district they selected. Six years later, David Armor and Brett Peiser conducted a study to examine the social, racial, and financial impact of the choice program on participating districts, and to determine if the thesis behind…

Urban Little Schools (ULS) is a model that presents an alternative to failing urban schools. In these schools, each student's education is planned and guided in trusting teacher-student relationships where students take responsibility for their own learning. Secondary ULS students work alongside people in their community to learn to be…

Selections in this book, which grew from a seminar at New York University between 1994 and 1996, discuss the recent educational innovations of charter schools, contracting arrangements, and choice that are designed to liberate educators and raise the levels of opportunity for all students. The essays, which focus on the urban experience, explore…

Question-and-answer format is used to provide guidance about the eligibility of public charter schools to receive funds, and the allocation of such funds, under Part A of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Part A provides federal financial assistance, through state education agencies (SEAs) to local education agencies (LEAs) to…

This collection of papers presents a variety of field-tested examples that use problem-based learning (PBL) for teacher education in many professional development settings. It describes PBL activities for preservice, novice, and experienced educators at all levels. The eight chapters describe teacher educators' experiences using PBL in their…

Community schools were created in Ohio to provide additional educational options for children in low-performing schools and to develop innovative teaching and management techniques that may be transferable to traditional public schools. In 1997 the Ohio General Assembly required the Legislative Office of Education Oversight (LOEO) to evaluate the…

This research brief recaps a study of California charter schools. After a discussion of the key distinctions among charter schools, the brief focuses on the following questions: (1) Who attends charter schools? (2) How does student achievement in charter schools compare with that in conventional public schools? (3) What oversight do chartering…

Among the major concerns surrounding school-choice programs is their potential to stratify students along the dimensions of race, ethnicity, or socioeconomic class. The latest among four U.S. Department of Education national evaluations of charter schools reports no evidence that charter schools are predominantly white or that they segregate…

"A Brief Profile of America's Public Schools" summarizes important findings from the 1999-2000 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). This document looks at differences between public and private schools and also examines public schools, and how they differ by community type (urban, suburban, and rural), and by school level (elementary,…

The CFO (chief financial officer) performs the budgeting, accounting, and financial functions for a local education agency (LEA). The CFO of 1998 works in a very different environment from 25 years ago, due to changes in school funding sources (from local to state systems), information technology, and school district organization and…

This article chronicles the evolution of legislation for Texas open-enrollment charter schools to their implementation by demonstrating how these schools have (or have not) used their freedom from state-mandated requirements to develop innovative learning environments as well as to bring innovative curricula into the classroom. The investigative…

This report presents information about public elementary and secondary education for the 2003-04 school year. The data were provided by state education agencies through the Common Core of Data (CCD) survey system, a universe data collection that includes the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Department of Defense…

As state coffers continue to shrink this year, there is less money for education, and much of what is available is earmarked for mandates. Yet the money is out there if one knows how to find, create, or borrow it; the trick is to be creative. In this article, the author offers a dozen daring ideas for generating extra cash. The highest-profile…

This publication contains a sample of the indicators in "The Condition of Education 2010." The indicators in this publication are numbered sequentially, rather than according to their numbers in the complete edition. Since 1870, the federal government has gathered data about students, teachers, schools, and education funding. As mandated…