A significant factor for many people deciding where to live is the quality of the local school district, with superior schools creating a price premium for housing. The result is a "race to the top," as all school districts attempt to improve their performance in order to attract homebuyers. Given the importance of school districts to the daily…

Case studies of multipurpose schools built in two school districts after a consolidation. (NI)

Joan Raymond was just six months into a well-earned retirement following 20 demanding years in the superintendency of some of the hottest kitchens in the nation. But when some longtime friends told her about an opening in South Bend, Indiana, Raymond could not ignore the itch to give it one more whirl. Raymond found the school system in far more…

The nation's best-known civil rights group has jumped into the fray over a controversial Nebraska law that would divide the 45,000-student Omaha school system into three separate districts, largely along racial and ethnic lines. In a lawsuit filed May 16 in US District Court in Omaha, Nebraska, the Omaha branch of the National Association for the…

The combination of the costs of providing services in sparsely populated areas and the equal opportunity benefits of comprehensive schools generates problems in terms of school district organization. The research reported here examines the relationship between increasing school district enrollment and increasing the distance children have to…

Middle schools in St. Louis (Missouri) were implemented in 1980. Evaluation measures indicate better student attendance and higher scores on achievement tests, fewer discipline referrals, and fewer student suspensions. (MLF)

This Education Policy Brief examines the research regarding the efforts occurring in the United States to consolidate school corporations or form cooperative agreements for shared services. The brief also examines those policy levers which are contributing to the elevated discussion concerning consolidation and shared services in Indiana. Based…

Community control under a metropolitan structure will encourage suburban citizens who have fled the cities to reexamine the urban crisis and, one hopes, to realize that the future of urban areas must be the concern of all citizens, not only those who remain in central cities. (Author)

Presents an implicit enumeration algorithm for redrawing school attendance boundaries in order to meet integration requirements. The basis of the approach is the division of the city into smaller areas or zones corresponding to neighborhoods. (Author)

Concludes that splinter districts may not be carved from larger districts in the process of abolishing a dual system when the ultimate effect would be to hinder the desegregation process in the larger district. The prohibition is not, however, permanent. (Author/IRT)

To the now-expansive literature on the causes and consequences of segregation in schooling and of inequality in educational opportunity in the United States, the author would like to add a call for more attention to the politics of school districting--that is, to how and why districts are created, in the service of whose interests, and with what…

School district reorganization is a process that requires considerable planning. This guide provides information on school district reorganization in the state of Nebraska, to interested boards of education and county and citizen reorganization committees. Topics discussed include planning for reorganization, establishing citizen committees, using…

The problems of a Kentucky county school consolidation as related to its educational program were examined in this case study. Questions about the changes in the instructional program included--(1) what were differences in purposes of the schools, (2) what are the differences in the organization structure, (3) what are the changes in facilities…

Describes "optimization" computer programing to aid in school redistricting. Using diverse demographic data, the computer plots district boundaries to minimize children's walking distance and maximize safety, improve racial balance, and keep enrollment within school capacity. (TE)