Based on some problems lying in current rural secondary education taking Ling County as an example, this paper proves the necessity and feasibility of moving rural secondary schools to town in the current condition: it is an objective demand by the changes in students; it is a necessary demand to optimize resource allocation and to improve…

Legislative mandates for improving student achievement under the No Child Left Behind Act have increased the need for student assessment, curriculum development and staff development in public schools. In order to meet these demands, schools must have the capacity necessary for improvement. Minnesota's small districts and their schools face…

This report is the third of a three-phase research study of teacher professional learning opportunities in the United States. In this third phase of the research, the authors conducted case studies of four professionally active states to get a deeper look at the policy frameworks that support professional development in those states. These…

Tax revenue flows to California's nearly 1,000 school districts through many different channels. According to the Governor's Committee on Education Excellence (2007), this system is so complex that the state cannot determine how revenues are distributed among school districts, and after reviewing a large number of academic studies in the Getting…

The National Commission on Asian American and Pacific Islander Research in Education (CARE), consisting of a national commission, research advisory group, and research team at New York University, aims to engage realistic and actionable discussions about the mobility and educational opportunities for Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs)…

This report examines the problem of school facility disparities in Michigan and the prospects of litigation to address this problem. First, the authors briefly review evidence of the important impact of school facilities on students, teachers, and communities. They then provide an overview of litigation aimed at state school finance systems across…

This report summarizes the perspectives and attitudes of a selected set of district and school site administrators whom the authors interviewed in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) during the fall and winter of the 2009-2010 school year. The authors carried out interviews with selected district administrators and a series of focus groups…

A consensus is emerging among researchers who study charter schools that general conclusions about whether or not charter schools nationally perform better than traditional public schools are difficult to achieve (Buddin & Zimmer, 2005). Rather than asking, "Are charter schools working?" the better questions to ask might be,…

In March of each year, the ministry publishes the Operating Grants Manual showing estimated funding allocations for school districts for the upcoming school year. These estimates are based on enrolment projections. On September 30 of the new school year, enrolment is counted and the grants are recalculated based on actual enrolment. The ministry…

The math problem is common to most U.S. school districts, and education leaders are well aware that U.S. math achievement lags far behind many other countries in the world. University Place (Washington) School District Superintendent Patti Banks found the conspicuous income gap for math scores even more disturbing. In her school district, only 23%…

As service-learning is adopted by growing numbers of higher education institutions, there is increasing interest in understanding the factors necessary to sustain service-learning for the long-term. Institutions that were early adopters of service-learning may offer important insights into what factors influence long-term sustainability. With this…

The Money Myth is the contention that any education problem requires increased spending and, conversely, that reform is impossible without more funding. However, increased funding works for only certain kinds of school resources. Many reforms require resources that money cannot buy. What is needed are reforms that build the capacity of schools to…

The purpose of this paper is to offer insights from scholarly literature, related theory, and practical activities that can inform leaders' efforts to allocate resources and create incentives that will result in powerful, equitable learning for all. This document: (1) sketches the context for work and research related to resource allocation…

The purpose of this study is to determine the perceptions of New York State superintendents and board presidents in high-achieving and low-achieving school districts on the six superintendent leadership responsibilities identified by Waters and Marzano (2006) and their relationship to improving student achievement: (1) creating research-relevant…

The purpose of this report is to help advance the recommendations of the National Commission on Adult Literacy, for the Adult Education and Economic Growth Act under development by Congressmen Patrick Kennedy and Reuben Hinojosa. Current law is compared to National Commission amendments in such areas as: Adult and Dislocated Worker Employment and…