This paper reports findings from a multi-year study of the scale-up of Reading Apprenticeship (RA), an approach to improve academic literacy by helping teachers provide the support students need to be successful readers in the content areas. WestEd's Strategic Literacy Initiative (SLI), began developing the program in 1995 and has since reached…

On March 25-26, 2010, a cadre of urban education leaders gathered in Baltimore, Maryland for the "Fair Student Funding Summit," a conference that brought together districts that use weighted student funding (WSF) as an approach for allocating dollars to schools. Convened by Education Resource Strategies (ERS) and hosted by Baltimore City…

This study examined teachers' attitudes and beliefs in one over-performing urban/suburban high school of the state-mandated curriculum framework under conditions that I label a continuously uncertain reform effort or a top-down mandated curriculum involving constant mixed-messages as to its content, accountability demands, and future existence.…

One of the central challenges of designing and implementing a performance pay program is developing an approach for determining which schools, teachers, and administrators have performed well enough to have earned a bonus. The U.S. Department of Education's Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) program provides grantees substantial latitude to create…

Under Pennsylvania's relatively decentralized system that has considerable autonomy for local school boards, state control and state mandates have become matters of real concern to local school officials. Even in those districts that supply 90 percent of their funds from local taxes, state mandates produce extra costs. (Author/IRT)

Describes new strategies which rural schools must begin to employ in order to realize their full potential, and the part P.U.R.E. (People United for Rural Education) should play in implementing the new strategies. (AN)

Since the 1970s, states have substantially and dramatically increased their involvement in education while simultaneously endorsing notions of local control. This paper focuses on the impact of such persistent and pervasive state activism on school autonomy. It describes how the proliferation and accumulation of education policies enacted at the…

Policymakers view incentives as being more effective in ensuring local compliance with state reform goals than the mandates and sanctions used in the past. Also, voluntary compliance is seen as "morally superior" to coercion. This paper describes alternative incentive options available to policymakers and delineates the circumstances…

Educational voucher plans envision the creation of diverse educational options among which informed parents may make a choice for the schooling of their children. One specific voucher plan--the "regulated, compensatory voucher" plan advocated by the Center for the Study of Public Policy (the CSPP model)--has given rise to a federal effort to…

Restructuring is a reorganization that replaces central planning, control, and supervision with a deregulated, decentralized system in which the "bottom line" counts most. Seven explanations for restructuring are outlined, each reflecting a particular position or perspective : (1) a crisis in legitimization involving the dimensions of the…

Although many large districts have centrally organized their Chapter 1 (Education Consolidation and Improvement Act) compensatory programs at the district and project levels, elementary school improvement efforts are strongly tied to local school autonomy and principal leadership. This paper analyzes the Tucson (Arizona) Unified School District's…

This paper describes the construction and application of a framework to investigate control at the policy-making level in education. The minutes of the regular meetings of 21 school boards in British Columbia were analyzed for the period January to December of 1975. Construction of the framework involved (1) definitions of control and…

The role of state departments of education (SDEs) is changing because of changes in patterns and demands in the administration of education. Three trends are easily identifiable--school consolidation, increased school district autonomy, and the demand for accountability. There is substantial evidence that SDEs have not readily adjusted to these…

Because CETA and vocational education programs have the potential of serving the important social goals of reducing unemployment and providing the benefit of training, evaluation control at the top is essential. This control can be exerted in a manner that avoids some of the pitfalls of overcontrol through providing more alternatives and…

Needss asessment is here to stay as shools wishing to apply for grants under the competitive titles of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), must now justify their requests. However, quality assessment data cannot be obtained in the majority of school districts nationally without federal or state budgetary allocations for Local…