After years of painful budget cuts, new revenues will begin to flow to California school districts in 2014. Thanks to the voters' approval of Proposition 30 and the adoption of the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), nearly all districts can expect budget increases over the next several years. In this report PACE offers guidance on…

Organizations commonly engage in long range planning to direct decisions. Scenario planning, one method of private sector planning, is recognized as useful when organizations are facing uncertainty. Scenario planning engages the organization in a process that produces plausible stories, called scenarios, describing the organization in several…

In little more than a decade, Michigan has gone from being a fairly average state, to among the nation's bottom ten states in essential measures for student learning. It's a devastating fall, and students of color and low-income students--long poorly served by the state--are suffering the most from the system's terribly low performance. Governor…

In order to be able to compete in an increasingly competitive graduate labour market students need to develop their 'personal capital'. Participation in a range of relevant extracurricular activities (ECAs) is a key element to the development of personal capital. This paper carried out in-depth interviews with undergraduates in the first and final…

To navigate today's fiscal challenges successfully, school districts must constantly examine the long-term fiscal implications of policy, programmatic, and human resource decisions on their organization. They must look at the effect of such items as bargaining agreements, contracted services, placement costs, transportation costs, benefits,…

The purpose of this study was to examine Maryland community college trustees' intentions to promote succession planning. This study focused on community college trustees' understandings of their roles and responsibilities related to sustainability of institutions, their knowledge of the leadership crisis, and their intentions to promote succession…

Increasingly, more and more areas of educational practice are being guided by sets of national standards for content, leadership, professional ethics, family-school partnerships, and school accreditation, among others. Similarly, there is growing appreciation that standards are needed to effectively measure improvement in school climate. The…

Peter Eckel and Adrianna Kezar have written this book to offer insight to campus leaders who face transformational change--to help them mount a proactive, rather than a reactive, process to effect transformation. They believe that most institutional leaders have little to no experience with implementing large-scale change and lack a solid…

The purpose of this study was to analyze the perceptions of superintendents who have conducted both successful and unsuccessful school construction referendums in the state of Indiana from 2008-2010. This research will serve as a guide for superintendents who will undergo a school construction referendum, especially in Indiana. This study will…

Given a choice, most administrators, staff, and students would probably choose food from home over the school offerings. What about those without a choice? Students who qualify for free and reduced-price lunch are stuck with school lunches, which are sometimes the most balanced meal they'll get that day. Many others opt for school lunches out of…

There is growing concern that a variety of factors threaten the sustainability of academic libraries: developing and preserving print and digital collections, supplying and supporting rapidly changing technological and networking infrastructure, providing free services, maintaining growing costs of library buildings, and lowering libraries'…

The author analyzed the gender, grade, sources of referral, and problem areas of 1,664 student-clients who consulted a counseling center for individual counseling over an 11-year period. The results showed that grade, sources of referral, and problem areas varied significantly over the years whereas gender did not. Students who consulted the…

Using data strategically to guide decisions and actions can have a positive effect on education practices and processes. This facilitation guide shows education data teams how to move beyond simply reporting data to applying data to direct strategic action. Using guiding questions, suggested activities, and activity forms, this guide provides…

Long-range facility planning is a comprehensive process for preparing education institutions for the future and confirm that facilities meet current needs. A long-range facilities plan (LRFP) evaluates how facilities support programs and the educational needs of students, staff and the community. Each school district or college has unique needs…

This user's guide was developed to advance local planning at ARL member libraries. It is written for library leaders writ large and for anyone leading or contributing to research library planning processes. Users do not need advanced facilitation skills to benefit from this guide, but facilitators charged with supporting scenario planning will…