This report suggests that state boards of education are best able to make budgetary cuts after consulting professional staff, identifying basic educational objectives and goals, and determining which programs contribute most to the largest number of students. A board's decisions are facilitated by such legislation as Utah's Special Purpose…

Part of a comprehensive state study, this report assesses the scope and content of Illinois instructional requirements and offers preliminary recommendations toward improving the public school instructional program. Sources of information include state regulations, interviews, historical documents, statistical data, and analysis of other states'…

This issue summarizes study findings on how education agencies in California, Nevada, and Utah are responding to federal cutbacks, consolidation, and deregulation. Using the term "school improvement" to refer to a wide variety of activities and services, negative factors identified by the researchers include: elimination of many…

This report reviews local tax reform and describes an approach to simulating the effects of proposed tax reform on local school districts in Pennsylvania. The microcomputer spreadsheet simulation led to the development of a model able to meet the feasibility criteria established for such a simulation model. The model was designed to input…

This book comprises part I of the eighty-sixth annual yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. Focusing on the theme of the ecology of school renewal, this volume consists of 12 articles by different authors. The first five articles focus on school improvement: "Structure, Process, and an Agenda" by John I. Goodlad;…

This monograph is the eighth in a series on Illinois educational finance. The first section discusses the decline of Illinois' funding for both K-12 and higher education relative to other states. The second section investigates whether the decline in funding is part of a general decline in the economic affairs of Illinois or whether other factors…

The Arizona Department of Education (ADE) is seeking better ways to deliver appropriate services to small districts, since many ADE services tend to be of most benefit to larger districts. Small school districts in Arizona often have great distances between schools, personnel filling multiple roles, special budgetary constraints, limited range of…

The responsibilities and prerogatives of state departments of education regarding the allocation of federal funds authorized under provisions of the draft version of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981 are clarified in this report, and the resulting policy options available to state education agencies are examined. The law…

The consolidation of 42 federal education programs into block grants, under the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981, will have varied effects that might help or hurt rural or small schools. Legislatures and district superintendents are presently unsure what to do with the block grants, since they are used to more specific federal…

This paper contends that leadership at the state level can best improve schools through a leadership style that leads by example, by force of ideas, and by a devotion to fairness and justice. Responsibilities of state leaders include (1) reading and understanding the effective schools literature; (2) introducing school administrators to the…

New York State law permits school districts to invest cash not immediately needed for district operation and also specifies the kinds of investments that may be made in order to ensure the safety and liquidity of public funds. This audit examines cash management and investment practices in New York state's financially independent school districts.…

The focus of this paper is on examination of the processes, elements, and attitudes required to meet educational policy needs in conditions of declining enrollment. Public education is going through a period of change that is derived from forces in the larger society, rather than from within the educational system. Educators must become involved…

The recommendations presented here are the products of a six-month project aimed at identifying state mandates that limit the discretion of local school boards and school administrators in Pennsylvania. The department of education in Pennsylvania first analyzed the cost of these mandates in dollars and in decreased local control of education; it…

This report summarizes the contents of the 270 secondary level basic skills improvement program plans for reading, writing, and mathematics submitted by school districts in Massachusetts to the State Department of Education. School districts developed these plans in response to the State Board of Education Policy and Regulations published in…

In 1977 the Texas Education Agency (TEA) organized the Community Schools Advisory Panel (CSAP) because administrators of smaller school districts wanted regular opportunities to express their schools' views to TEA decision makers, especially the Commissioner of Education. CSAP consists of 14 representatives of Texas' 1,009 community schools…