This report, one of six state-of-the-field reports, details how educational leaders access data, the meaning they assign to it, and how the use data to improve teaching and learning. The report recognizes that data does not provide leaders a clear direction for action; rather that data used in educational settings is complex and indefinite. These…

This report by the California State Auditor reports that six of 10 California community college districts audited are incorrectly reporting their levels of spending on teacher salaries. State law requires that districts spend 50% of their current educational expenses on instructor salaries each year. By mandating this spending level, the…

This report to the California Governor and legislature reviews the proposal submitted by the Southwestern Community College District (SCCD) (California) to establish a state-approved educational center in Otay Mesa, to be known as the Southwestern Community College's Higher Education Center at Otay Mesa. The proposed state-supported center allows…

This report summarizes the findings and recommendations of the Iowa Community College Funding Formula Task Force. The first section contains a list of guiding principles of state aid to the community colleges. These include: providing Iowa citizens with access to educational opportunities and services; having a balance of state aid, local property…

This essay critiques the way in which state accountability schemes reify aggregated achievement test scores and help undercut the meanings that inform properly rural sorts of education. The contemporary phenomenon of accountability is examined, along with its relation to the threatened meanings of rural life, the identity of the rural victims of…

The Oregon Quality Education Model (QEM) was developed by the state to identify the fundamental requirements and costs for a quality education that meets Oregon's academic standards. It will determine the funding of Oregon schools. Among the assumptions upon which the QEM is built were that elementary school enrollment is 340 students, middle…

This study examines the relationship between school consolidation and district transportation costs, effects on instructional expenditures, and institutional factors supporting consolidation. Data on actual student transportation costs across the United States indicate that despite widespread school and school district consolidation,…

Small schools offer many advantages and their numbers are increasing, but current funding practices often do not meet their needs. This digest suggests strategies that can help small public schools, particularly small rural schools, redress funding inequalities and get the resources they need. Three basic strategies for improving resources at…

An on-line symposium on January 13, 1999, brought together policymakers, educators, parents, students, and local community reformers to discuss rural perspectives on academic standards. As part of an on-line dialogue extending from November 1998 to March 1999, the symposium linked on-line participants to panelists and participants in Burlington,…

The most significant contemporaneous movement in education is the effort to adapt the work of schools directly to the lives of the pupils. It is the expression of the effort to make the school training applicable. The normal activities of the child are to be directed and trained in such a way that real education will result therefrom. Education…

This study attempts to show the parts played by the State departments of education relative to general comprehensive programs of adult education, illiteracy eradication, and Americanization; adult-education programs of the Works Progress Administration and the National Youth Administration; educational programs of the Civilian Conservation Corps…

Factors to be considered when developing a new formula for financing public education in Connecticut are discussed in light of the Horton v. Meskill ruling, which declared Connecticut's financing method in violation of the state constitution. Formulas used by other states that may be applicable to Connecticut are also examined. (SF)

Describes model, data, results, and implications of a study attempting to clarify two issues previously overlooked in studies of financing public education with local property taxes: (1) that regionally aggregated data may bias test results, and (2) that local fiscal response to grant programs may vary with the wealth of school districts. (SB)

Faced with mandated reforms of the Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990, a mountain community grappled with the challenges of coupling top-down state mandates with bottom-up advocacy and engagement. A year of participant observation revealed six interrelated and paradoxical themes that emerged as these Appalachians created local ownership of…

The reform legislation in the State of Illinois requires each district to articulate learner outcomes in six areas of education. Separate provisions of the law require increased assessment and reporting by the states and local districts. Deficiencies in the reform program, and the State Board of Education's implementation of the program, are…