I examine whether the impact of the Great Recession on school district spending, the allocation of resources, and student achievement varied depending on the strength of state's teachers' unions. Employing a diff-in-diff-in-diff identification strategy, I find that school districts in states with strong teachers' unions experienced significantly…

The effectiveness of educator incentive programs rests on the assumption that the potential rewards for participants will motivate them to behave in certain ways (e.g., choose certain jobs, expend greater effort, engage in capacity-building professional development). Some researchers have examined the impact of financial incentives on teacher…

A number of studies have examined the impact of school accountability policies, including No Child Left Behind (NCLB), on student achievement. However, there is relatively little evidence on how school accountability reforms and NCLB, in particular, have influenced education policies and practices. This study examines the effects of NCLB on…

This article builds on research on teacher adaptations to students by exploring how Belgian and English national contexts influence teachers' definitions of educational success, their explanations of educational failure, and their allocation of scarce educational resources to disadvantaged students. Ethnographic data from one Flemish (Belgian) and…

Shows that commonly used "value-added" models are misspecified when estimated using the National Education Longitudinal Study, a finding that raises questions about whether previous value-added studied are unbiased. Also reviews more recent literature using instrumental variables methods to address omitted variables bias. (SLD)

Examines the potential for inconsistent resource allocation decisions to be made at different administrative levels of school districts and schools. Uses data from 654 New York school districts to show internal variation across districts in how teacher resources are distributed and evidence of inconsistency at levels of decision making. (SLD)

Studied whether gifted and talented children require supplemental resources to receive an appropriate education using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 and information about the distribution of fiscal and human resources to gifted children in Texas. National results show that some minorities and students of low…

Improving school effectiveness is not a realistic policy goal for the '80s; the goal of maintaining effectiveness at reduced cost levels (i.e., improving efficiency) should be substituted. New technology is creating the potential for reducing costs in education and its adoption may help to overcome traditional political resistance to cost-based…

A case study of Boston (Massachusetts) public schools shows how specialization and fragmentation of teaching resources reduced the individual attention most students received and limited a school's flexibility to respond to student needs. The analysis develops three measures as possible indicators of the opportunity for freeing teacher resources.…

The three articles of this special section address developments and prospects for economic analyses of education policy. Issues addressed relate resources to outcomes in education and cost benefit analysis in education. Balancing economics and educational improvement is a focus throughout. (SLD)

Describes five case studies of high-performing public schools that have organized professional resources in innovative ways. Outlines principles of successful resource allocation. Presents a framework and methodology for examining a school's current use of resources. (MAK)

This paper assesses the rationale for legislated program consolidation, summarizing problems with the current structure of categorical programs and arguments for reform through consolidation, reviewing past consolidation proposals, discussing the likely effects of such proposals, analyzing the state, local, and federal responses that can be…

A review of over 400 studies of student achievement demonstrates that there is not a strong or consistent relationship between student performance and school resources, at least after variations in family input are taken into account. Simple resource policies appear to offer little hope for improving student outcomes. (SLD)

The status of school finance research and priority tasks to be undertaken in the next round of research are outlined. Both substantive and methodological issues are addressed. Finance-reform relations, methods addressing equity in funding distribution, and neglected areas of study are covered. (TJH)

In New York City, where almost 14% of elementary school pupils are foreign-born and roughly half these are "recent immigrants," the impact of immigrant students on school resources may be important. While immigrant advocates worry about inequitable treatment of immigrant students, others worry that immigrants drain resources from…