"Gerrymandering" is known best as a tool to manipulate boundaries for voting districts, but school districts have long used the same tool to manipulate school boundaries. The author used geospatial techniques--mapping various kinds of demographic data onto school boundaries--to examine public school attendance zones and their effect on…

In this article, I discuss the promise of geospatial techniques for education policy research and how increased attention to the historical context of spatial data can enhance that work. While scholarship utilizing geographic information systems has added considerable breadth to our understanding of education policy, recent geospatial studies in…

In November 2007, area voters approved the consolidating of four districts into the Twin Rivers Unified School District (TRUSD) intending to create an articulated pre-K-adult urban district of 27,000 students. Since the creation of TRUSD no studies have been conducted to measure the impact of the consolidation on student achievement and related…

The downward enrollment trend shown in this year's "AS&U" 100--a compilation of the nation's 100 largest school districts--is unmistakable. Added together, the 100 largest districts had 10,708,137 students in 2006-2007, compared with 10,763,959 in 2005-2006. Even districts that showed steady growth throughout the 1990s and the early…

Few educational responsibilities have greater far-reaching importance to the people of a State than the establishment of a sound local district structure for administering the schools. Keeping that structure adapted to changing conditions in society by reorganization of small ineffective districts into larger administrative units more capable of…

CALIFORNIA HAS ACCEPTED THE CONCEPT THAT ALL SCHOOL DISTRICTS ARE TO BE INCLUDED IN JUNIOR COLLEGE DISTRICTS. THIS STUDY DETERMINED WHAT EFFECT ANY CHANGE IN THE TERRITORY NOW INCLUDED IN THE CITRUS JUNIOR COLLEGE DISTRICT WOULD HAVE UPON THE SCHOOL'S ENROLLMENTS, BUILDING PROGRAM, AND FINANCIAL STRUCTURE. TOTAL ENROLLMENT IN THE COLLEGE, 1963-64,…

Results of school district reorganization may be viewed in a number of ways. Frequently progress is measured in terms of the number of local districts eliminated by incorporating their territory in larger units. Results may likewise be measured by increases in the number of new districts having certain characteristics of size or other features…

PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEMS IN THE UNITED STATES HAVE BEEN ORGANIZED IN DIFFERENT WAYS, BOTH WITHIN THE STATES AND FROM STATE TO STATE. IN SOME CASES SCHOOL DISTRICT STRUCTURE IS COTERMINOUS WITH LOCAL GOVERNMENTAL UNITS AND IS "DEPENDENT" ON THEM. HOWEVER, 78 PERCENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOL ENROLLMENTS ARE IN "INDEPENDENT" SCHOOL DISTRICTS…

This handbook describes procedures for school-district reorganization in California. Following the introductory chapter, chapter 2 offers a historical overview of school-district reorganization in California. Chapters 3 and 4 outline the organization and responsibilities of the county committee and the role and responsibilities of the State Board…

This study summarizes the theory and the available evidence on the effects of size on the responsiveness and efficiency of local government. For each of four important sections of the California Code bearing on the structure and authority of cities and school districts, the study summarizes (1) the primary provisions of the present Code, (2) some…

The goal of this report is to introduce the kinds of data and the kinds of reports which are useful in the process of desegregating schools. In September of 1971, the San Francisco Unified School District desegregated its elementary schools. That it was able to open these schools in semi-normal fashion was due in large part to the services…

This paper charts a proposed 15-point plan to move from the present California public school system, devised over 50 years ago, to a system flexible enough to go into the next century. The plan is proposed by Charles S. Terrell, Jr., Ed.D., San Bernardino County superintendent of schools. The 15 points address changes in these areas: (1) class…

Challenging conventional wisdom that Mexican Americans were passive victims of their educational fates, this book examines the Mexican American struggle for equal education during the 1960s and 1970s in a California community "Brownfield." It looks at responses of a predominantly White school system and community to the growing number of…

A middle-grade restructuring effort implemented by the Monterey Peninsula Unified School District is described in this report. A literature review and interviews with four educators experienced in restructuring explore issues in middle-school transition at the school and district levels. Topics related to the implementation process include needs…