According to our government, the latest recession is finally over. Still, it seems to me that lots of states are wrangling with diminished budgets for schools in general and gifted programs in particular. So, if we are to maintain our own livelihoods and our field's existence, we're going to have to become innovative in our approaches to…

Since 1994, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) has provided funding to new charter schools through Charter School Program (CSP) grants designed to provide support for the planning and implementation of effective new charter programs. Grants are awarded to state education agencies, which then provide funding to approved charter schools through…

This report examines how California's massive and ongoing investment in school construction could better advance the shared goals of school improvement, sustainable urban growth, and equal opportunity. This brief is organized in five parts. First, the authors sketch a "framework" for how smart growth principles could help guide school…

Achieving the goals of federal education legislation depends on how federal funds are distributed and used. Since the enactment of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in 1965, various federal programs have been created to support educational improvement and target additional resources to meet the educational needs of children who are…

Two years ago, only 150 students attended Holabird Elementary, then a K-5 school in the southeastern corner of this city. Competition from charters and from regular public schools in nearby Baltimore County had drained families from Holabird, a chronic underperformer. So when Andres A. Alonso, the chief executive officer of the Baltimore city…

This article investigates budget monitoring and control in township schools in South Africa. The enactment of the Schools Act 1996 revolutionized school financial management in South Africa, making it part of the drive for democratic school governance. School governing bodies had to be established, whose responsibility it became to manage finances…

Colleges and universities, like corporations and other nonprofit organizations, are subject to periodic fluctuations in the economy and public support. Thus, the question is not whether they will confront financial problems but rather when and how. This article describes how institutions and boards can detect budgets in crisis, provides principles…

Statewide about one-third of the funds that K-12 schools receive in 2007-08 are from categorical programs designated to serve specific purposes. School agencies receive varying amounts depending on district characteristics, the programs they choose to operate, and the proportion of the state's 6.3 million students that they serve. These tables…

Robert Michels' famous "iron law of oligarchy" has come under criticism from scholars that question assumptions regarding the concentration of power within social movement organizations (SMOs). Despite such concerns, Michels' broader interests in organizational structure and power continue to be relevant for analyzing the goals and…

As states look for ways to hold school districts accountable for how they use big increases in K-12 funding, New York's experience may offer a test case in directing the flow of that new money. Under the state's ambitious "Contracts for Excellence" program, 55 of New York's 705 districts will share $430 million in extra aid this school…

In the economics of education, no task has been more important or more difficult than identifying the relationship between school inputs and student performance. The literature on this topic has reached little resolution, largely owing to the endogeneity of school resources. In this paper I examine the effect of a vital but little studied…

This article compares and contrasts the theories of three major writers on societal change: Chirot discusses the economic power struggles within and among core, peripheral, and semiperipheral societies, Toffler exposes a future in which major power shifts could have cataclysmic results, and Bruner emphasizes the importance of education to temper…

This article examines the approaches that Hong Kong and Singapore have adopted in trying to develop themselves as regional hubs of higher education through their developments of transnational higher education. Hong Kong and Singapore compete for this market share of global higher education because it can be a lucrative business. Adapting a model…

This article reports the results of school budget simulations with 568 randomly selected California public school teachers, principals, and superintendents. Simulation participants were presented with the budget for a hypothetical school and asked to use that budget to employ the resources that would maximize the academic achievement of the…

Student attainment of educational outcomes is a core purpose of any institution of higher education and assessment provides a vehicle through which a program of study is able to ascertain how well it is achieving its stated learning outcomes and how program improvement might be achieved. Assessment of student learning begins with the clear…