Despite being central to government education policy in many countries, there remains considerable debate about whether resources matter for pupil outcomes. In this paper we look at this question by considering an English education policy initiative--Excellence in Cities--which has been a flagship policy aimed at raising standards in inner-city…

High-quality early care and education (ECE) programs promote positive child outcomes, allow parents to work, and contribute to the local economy. Although extant research takes into account the ECE sector in its entirety, recent economic and policy interest has centered on part-day prekindergarten for 3- and 4-year-olds only. Using an ecological…

Background/Context: In recent years, state legislatures, state education departments, and advocacy groups in over 30 states have sponsored education adequacy studies, which aim to determine objectively the amount of funding needed to provide all students a meaningful opportunity for an adequate education. Not surprisingly, because of their growing…

When this research report was first conceived, the current economic crisis was only just on the verge of revealing its full extent. Economic crisis or no economic crisis, over the years funding for PK-12 education has been a constant struggle. While all schools continue to face difficulties, for various reasons rural schools have different and…

An evaluation addressed whether Project Independence, Florida's Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Program, had reduced welfare costs and increased the employment, earnings, and income of welfare recipients. It examined the experiences of more than 18,000 Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) applicants and recipients from 9 randomly…

This report assesses the economic impact of the University of Massachusetts at Boston (UMass/Boston) on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with attention to three major economic contributions: (1) the additional income that UMass/Boston students generate within the state as a result of their university education; (2) the added state income and…

School systems face the challenge of meeting high expectations with limited resources. Reductions in operating grants and increasing expenditures have exaggerated the problem. The Innovation Network was established by the Saskatchewan School Trustees Association in 1995 to help boards of education make the best use of available resources. This…

A multimedia software package, ASTOUND, has been used by the University of South Carolina (USC) Sumter in the development of lectures and support learning materials in a computer literacy course. A hardware setup, known as the Tech Commander, which provides immediate feedback for both students and instructor as work is being done in the lab, has…

This paper focuses on practical and cost-effective NetWare-specific approaches to information systems and computer security. A series of real world experiences is presented that illustrate fundamental information systems and security concepts. A NetWare network is a client-server network which uses a file server to share files while client…

Soldiers who exit the Army before the end of their first term of service represent lost investments in terms of both direct costs (e.g., training costs) and indirect costs (e.g., force instability). The Army would benefit from pre-enlistment information that could identify those individuals most likely to complete their first term. This paper…

This paper contains executive summaries of the productivity-quality efforts and priorities from 12 Illinois public universities. Reports summarize the schools' goals (e.g., improved minority student achievement; greater use of technology) and initiatives in pursuit of those goals (e.g., incorporation of diversity issues into new curricula;…

Even when studying the same measures of school performance, some educational researchers conclude that greater spending is useful in promoting student progress; others find little evidence that extra spending produces meaningful improvement in student performance. The studies in this book focus on two measures of educational effectiveness. Half…

Generally, construction projects undertaken by school districts in New York State are financed in part by state aid. The Education Department's Facilities Planning unit approves state aid for school-district construction projects outside New York City. This report presents findings of an audit that evaluated whether the Unit management's oversight…

There is a considerable interest at Educational Testing Service (ETS) to include performance-based, natural language constructed-response items on standardized tests. Such items can be developed, but the projected time and costs required to have these items scored by human graders would be prohibitive. In order for ETS to include these types of…

The New Jersey Unemployment Insurance Reemployment Demonstration Project was undertaken to examine the feasibility of using the unemployment insurance (UI) system to identify displaced workers early in their unemployment spells and then accelerating their return to work by providing them with alternative, early intervention services. Three…