Driven by stable or declining financial resources many school districts are considering the costs and benefits of a seven-period day. While there is limited evidence that any particular scheduling model has a greater impact on student learning than any other, it is clear that the school schedule is a tool that can significantly impact teacher…

Faculty development yields benefits by increasing skills in instruction that translate into increased student success and retention. Tenure and non-tenure faculty have similar support needs, and developers can best aid all through being cognizant of the demands placed on them and employing approaches that respect faculty time. Proven helpful…

Numerous studies have demonstrated the benefits of daylight on the learning environment. Enhanced student performance and mood, increased teacher and student attendance, reduced energy costs, as well as a positive effect on the environment are some of the improvements seen in school buildings that use well-planned daylighting concepts. Looking at…

This study quantifies one part of the return to U.S. public investment in college education, namely, the fiscal benefits associated with greater college attainment. College graduates pay much more taxes than those not going to college. Government expenditures are also much less for college graduates than for those without a college education.…

The authors present a cost-benefit analysis of a Juvenile Breaking the Cycle (JBTC) program in Oregon designed to provide juvenile justice system monitoring and coordinated treatment and services to youth who are assessed as at high risk for recidivism and substance use. Detailed cost analyses are presented for youth in the JBTC program and a…

The public computing center offers an economical and environmentally friendly model for providing additional public computer access when and where it is needed. Though not intended to be a replacement for a full-service branch, the public computing center does offer a budget-friendly option for quickly expanding high-demand services into the…

Privatization of local government services is assumed to deliver cost savings, but empirical evidence for this from around the world is mixed. We conduct a meta-regression analysis of all econometric studies examining privatization of water distribution and solid waste collection services and find no systematic support for lower costs with private…

Personal Learning Environments (PLEs) have emerged as a solution to the need of learners for open and easily customisable learning environments. PLEs essentially hand complete control over the learning process to the learner. However, this learning model is not fully compatible with learning in the workplace, which is influenced by certain…

This paper describes an informal component that we added to an online formal language learning environment in order to help the learners reach relevant Internet pages they can freely use to complement their learning activity. Thanks to this facility, each lesson is enriched, at run time, with a number of links automatically retrieved from social…

This paper reviews current research on the effectiveness of interventions and reforms that seek to improve the math preparedness and success of high school students entering college. Based on gaps in the research knowledge, it also provides recommendations for further inquiry in particular areas. The studies reviewed here are selected from…

Using logistic regression, this study sought to understand the relationship between district characteristics, district finances, levy characteristics, and campaign expenditures with new operating levy outcomes. We found that employee benefits as a percentage of the district's budget were negatively associated with levy outcomes, while salaries…

More and more things that humans used to do can be automated on computer. In each case, complex tasks have been automated -- not to the extent that they can be done as well as humans, but better. I will draw and develop parallels to education -- showing how and why advances in the Structural Learning Theory (SLT) and the AuthorIT development and…

This paper presents a systems approach based on the work of W. Edwards Deming, an alternative to the all purpose "We need more money" solution. A bibliography is included.

"Class Size: What Research Says and What It Means for State Policy" argues that increasing average class size by one student will save about 2% of total education spending with negligible impact on academic achievement. It justifies this conclusion on the basis that Class-Size Reduction (CSR) is not particularly effective and is not as…

Given the importance of a college education to entering and staying in the middle class and the high cost of obtaining a bachelor's degree, "Who Wins? and Who Pays?" are questions being asked today at kitchen tables and in the halls of government throughout the nation. Using publicly available data, the authors look at who wins and who pays…