Toward Effective Resource Use: Assessing How Education Dollars Are Spent
This paper shows how districts can assess the efficiency of their own resource use compared to similar districts and judge whether non-instructional expenditures are excessive.
Resource Allocation in Traditional and Reform-Oriented Collective Bargaining Agreements
When school boards enter contracts with teachers unions, they determine the use of nearly half of all the funds available to public education. In this paper Julia Koppich looks at an important source of resource allocation decisions—teacher collective bargaining agreements.
A New Approach to the Cost of Teacher Turnover
This paper explores ways districts can reduce the costs (in terms of lost school productivity and lost training investments) of teacher turnover.
Incentive-Based Financing of Schools
This report analyzes the incentives under which public school teachers and leaders work. It concludes that there are few rewards for producing high levels of student achievement and many rewards for work that does not promote student learning.
School Finance Systems and Their Responsiveness to Performance Pressures: A Case Study of North Carolina
New accountability systems require that states and districts accomplish something never accomplished before—ensuring that all students meet state standards. This report explores how these expectations have altered resource decisions in North Carolina.
Not for the Timid: Breaking Down Barriers, Creating Breakthrough High Schools in Ohio
This report presents the results of an analysis of perceived barriers to high school redesign and real impediments embedded in federal and state statutes and regulations, as well as in local district policies in the state of Ohio.
School Safety in Urban Charter and Traditional Public Schools
Analyzing data from the 2003-04 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), this working paper finds that charter schools consistently reported significantly fewer issues with threats to persons or property and fewer behavioral problems than traditional public schools.
How the Federal Government Shapes and Distorts the Financing of K-12 Schools
This paper examines the categorical program strategy by which the federal government and most states try to target extra funds for particular purposes.
Paying for School Finance Adequacy With the National Average Expenditure Per Pupil
This working paper shows that many districts have accelerated student learning by reallocating funds to emphasize targeted assistance to students, fewer non-instructional burdens on teachers, greater use of instructional technology, coaching for teachers, and class size reduction targeted on core classes only.
Making Resource Decisions Amidst Technical Uncertainty
This working paper paper suggests how a performance-driven system would allocate funds, monitor performance, search for more productive models of instruction, and replace less effective schools and programs.