This paper examines political influences on assessment programs and their effects on local school systems. Specifically, it describes North Carolina's political climate and examines the impact of political influences on educational assessment in the state. The political climate in North Carolina has produced a plethora of state-mandated tests,…

New Mexico has a great sense of pride in its school funding formula as originally conceived. Over time, however, an increasingly politicized atmosphere led to changes in the formula. This paper incorporates input from school administrators and state policy makers to identify a variety of issues influencing the current status of school finance in…

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…

This booklet provides questions and answers that point to the increasing interest that states have in developing, shaping, and evaluating the success of schools. The booklet highlights the analysis and recommendations of representatives of 10 states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New…

Included in calls for change during the school reform of the 1980s were demands that teachers be given more control over education in the classroom. Such calls have led to the propagation of changes in the schools that allow teachers to take the lead in education, with school management being left to administrators. These changes create legal…

This document presents findings of an audit of 17 Texas school districts, conducted during spring 1993. The audit used the Savings Profile System, which is based on the Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) data, to identify potential cost-saving opportunities for each district. It is conservatively estimated that school districts…

School district organization in Wisconsin was never intended to be permanent or static. Changes in school district organization are a normal, ongoing process necessary to keep pace with changing needs, expectations, and conditions. Wisconsin has four different types of school districts--common school districts, Union High school districts, unified…

The United States ranks first in the world among major industrialized nations in school costs and ranks nearly last in student achievement. Three massive changes in state educational policies during the last half century may account for this low educational productivity. From 1940 to 1990: (1) the number of U.S. school districts decreased 87…

For the average school district, state funding is now higher than local funding, with unknown effects on per pupil spending. Previous studies in individual states do not agree on the direction and magnitude of the stimulative effect of state funding. This paper analyzes data from the 1989-90 United States Bureau of the Census report, "Public…

This paper explores educator reactions to Oregon's House Bill 3565, officially the "Oregon Educational Act for the 21st Century," and describes how and why reactions differ among individuals and schools. The act differs from those enacted by other states in that it mandates changes that are not incremental and focuses on the…

Three papers that examine emerging issues in school board governance comprise this document. The first, "The Changing Role of the Ontario School Trustee," by John Davis, explores changes in the amount of time spent by trustees in fulfilling their job responsibilities. Based on questionnaires and interviews with trustees, implications of…

A program designed to provide educational administrators with the skills and resources to become more effective in their jobs is described. The program, offered as an annual series of two statewide workshops, focuses on developing anticipatory and prescriptive management techniques. Participants are encouraged to conduct follow-up inservice…

This article traces the development and rationale of the School Improvement Program proposed by the new Labor Government of Victoria (Australia). The program would be based on school communities, each voluntarily developing a long-term project improving the school as an educational entity. The design assumptions, funding criteria, and implications…

Most early care and education teachers are not required to have attained a bachelor's degree (BA) prior to working with young children. Because of the research base demonstrating that teachers with a BA specifically related to early childhood play an integral role in the provision of high-quality early care and education, there have been…

The focus of this article is upon an approach to allocating educational resources which is structured to minimize existing inadequacies in distribution procedures. It also presents some practical problems encountered in initiating a new allocation procedure at the State level. (Author)