Drawing on a review of literature and telephone interviews of state agency staff in 25 states, the paper identifies traditional and emerging forms of state differential treatment of districts. The author discusses potential benefits and disadvantages of various approaches to differential treatment and suggests areas for further research. [This…

The efforts of states to differentiate regulatory treatment among districts and schools are examined in this paper. Data were derived from case studies of four state programs: Kentucky's Educational Deficiency Program of receivership for troubled districts; New Jersey's Plan to Intervene in Deficient School Districts; South Carolina's Flexibility…

To foster high quality education, some states are treating districts differently, reserving a heavy hand for some and granting more flexibility and regulatory freedom to others. South Carolina was the first state to enact a flexibility program granting blanket waivers, or wide-scale exemptions from whole categories of education regulations, to a…

It is argued that traditional notions of state-local relations as a zero-sum game need recasting. It appears that local effects of state policy are greater than those predicted on the basis of state capacity and that localities often gain, rather than lose, influence as a result of state policymaking. (TJH)

From all existing evidence, there is no inevitability about the relationship between centralized fiscal responsibility and decentralized decisionmaking. He who pays the piper does not necessarily call the tune. (Author)

When exploring the relationship between states and the federal government, analysts have examined the strategic value of a differential approach as well as the political issues involved. This paper explores those themes in examining state differential treatment of districts under four major headings: (1) the tensions between uniformity and…

Today local control over education seems to face the most serious challenge in its history. The movement to reform school finance raises the specter of the State assuming its formal consitutional powers and removing autonomy from the communities. Hence, it is argued, as the State takes over control of taxation and expenditures it will want to…

Examines the evolution of deregulation as a state education policy strategy, from limited waiver programs to charter programs and new accountability systems that include broad deregulation. The article discusses the substantial political and practical barriers to broad deregulation despite the assumption that greater school-level autonomy will…

In the late 1980s and 1990s, states began working to decrease the level of regulation of public education, using a variety of approaches to regulatory flexibility. This paper examines the evolution of deregulation, from limited waiver programs to charter-school plans and new performance-based accountability systems that include broad-scale…

Since the late 1980s, support has been growing for a "systemic" vision of reform that would pair ambitious, coordinated state policies with professional discretion at the school site. Policymakers at all levels of government, as well as associations, foundations and national agencies, support this approach. This paper highlights issues and…

Examines opportunity-to-learn (OTL) standards, which define conditions that schools, districts, and states must meet to ensure students an equal education. Offers an explanation of the states' historical inability to influence equal education, and proposes principles for designing new state policies. Includes recommendations to the states for…