Building from the existing knowledge of charter school spending and staffing, and with a lens toward better understanding the fiscal flexibility afforded charter schools, this study examines staffing patterns in California's charter schools over the last decade. Using detailed professional assignment data for the universe of California schools in…

When the budget-cutting ended this year in one rural North Texas school district, the people-moving began. Forced to chop its total staff to 55 employees from 64, the Perrin-Whitt Consolidated Independent school system went the route of many districts across the country: It made the majority of its reductions by encouraging early retirements and…

The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) collects institution-level data from postsecondary institutions in the United States (the 50 states and the District of Columbia) and other jurisdictions. For IPEDS, a postsecondary institution is defined as an organization that is open to the public and has as its primary mission the…

Schools and districts across the country are being subjected to some of the fiercest budget cuts in recent history, even as principals are held increasingly accountable for significantly improving student achievement, particularly in schools labeled "persistently low-achieving." For the 5,000 lowest-performing schools, there is the…

Most districts are facing severe budgetary constraints, and special education is one area that is feeling the effects. Special education consumes an average of 20%-30% of school district budgets. Pacing fiscal and systemic controls on special-education spending, and examining para professional placements in particular, will lead to better delivery…

Museum educators at small museums are sometimes thrust, solo, into building budgets from scratch. In this case study an emerging professional discovers that she has limited funding for an existing program that she was hired to run. She finds that she has to rebuild the budget to discover the program's true costs, and that sustainability depends…

Revenue generation is a challenge faced by museums in today's economy. The authors encourage educators to take on a larger role in establishing new revenue streams. By applying Jim Collins' "Hedgehog Concept," their unique knowledge of audiences, and their strong ability to work in teams, educators can rethink what they've always done to influence…

In the 2006-2007 school year, the State of Wyoming adopted an evidenced-based school funding model. The Wyoming funding model reviewed in this study is considered an evidence-based approach, utilizing expert judgment to determine educational funding. In an evidence-based approach, educational strategies are identified and a dollar figure is…

Simultaneous pressures to reduce costs and increase student achievement have never been greater than they are today. Not only is cost-cutting essential in this era of tightened resources, argue Hess and Osberg, but eliminating inefficient spending is critical for freeing up resources to drive school reform. This provocative book brings together a…

This is a folow-up report on developments in long-range faculty personnel planning since the publication of "Steady-State Staffing in Tenure-Granting Institutions and Related Papers," covering the period from March through December 1973. Following references to newly available data, the paper deals first with work done at SUNY-Buffalo, Stanford,…

Authors suggest that most of the criticism of the pool method of financing advanced further education is misdirected. (Editor/MB)

As colleges and universities have started a trend toward the hiring of paid solicitors, others have begun to question the traditional role of volunteers as campaign solicitors. The long-range effects of the trend toward increased staff solicitation are discussed and suggestions for staff working with volunteers are offered. (Author/MLW)

This component of the project attempts to facilitate planning by furnishing models that manage cumbersome and complex data, supply an objectivity that identifies all relationships between elements of the model, and provide a quantitative model allowing for various forecasting techniques that describe the long-range impact of decisions. (Author/IRT)

This document provides abstracts of papers prepared by the staff of the Manitoba Association of School Trustees for circulation to the trustees. The papers fall into three main categories: staff utilization, policy analyses of administrative and financial matters, and relations between laymen and professionals. Topics of the occasional papers…

This handbook suggests that public schools should be reformed in fundamental ways. It outlines the structure of public schools, focusing on administrative units, school boards, administrators, the "mini-laws" that govern the school society, and the three R's of the student: responsibility, respect, and reward. The book emphasizes the importance of…