Equity and Adequacy in Education Finance
Equity and Adequacy in Education Finance

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1999-03-12

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 0309139325

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Spending on K-12 education across the United States and across local school districts has long been characterized by great disparitiesâ€"disparities that reflect differences in property wealth and tax rates. For more than a quarter-century, reformers have attempted to reduce these differences through court challenges and legislative action. As part of a broad study of education finance, the committee commissioned eight papers examining the history and consequences of school finance reform undertaken in the name of equity and adequacy. This thought-provoking, timely collection of papers explores such topics as: What do the terms "equity" and "adequacy" in school finance really mean? How are these terms relevant to the politics and litigation of school finance reform? What is the impact of court-ordered school finance reform on spending disparities? How do school districts use money from finance reform? What policy options are available to states facing new challenges from court decisions mandating adequacy in school finance? When measuring adequacy, how do you consider differences in student needs and regional costs?

Making Money Matter
Making Money Matter

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1999-11-30

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 0309172888

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The United States annually spends over $300 billion on public elementary and secondary education. As the nation enters the 21st century, it faces a major challenge: how best to tie this financial investment to the goal of high levels of achievement for all students. In addition, policymakers want assurance that education dollars are being raised and used in the most efficient and effective possible ways. The book covers such topics as: Legal and legislative efforts to reduce spending and achievement gaps. The shift from "equity" to "adequacy" as a new standard for determining fairness in education spending. The debate and the evidence over the productivity of American schools. Strategies for using school finance in support of broader reforms aimed at raising student achievement. This book contains a comprehensive review of the theory and practice of financing public schools by federal, state, and local governments in the United States. It distills the best available knowledge about the fairness and productivity of expenditures on education and assesses options for changing the finance system.

Equity and Adequacy in Education Finance: Issues and Perspectives... Ed438373... U.S. Department of EducationIh[electronic Resource].
Equity and Adequacy in Education Finance: Issues and Perspectives... Ed438373... U.S. Department of EducationIh[electronic Resource].

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 1998

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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In the mid 1990s, the U.S. Congress requested a major study of the U.S. system of elementary and secondary education finance by the National Research Council (NRC). This volume of background papers was prepared in conjunction with one part of the study. It includes eight papers commissioned by the NCR's committee to inform its discussions about equity and adequacy in education finance, two of the issues it was specifically charged to address. The papers are: (1) "Concepts of School Finance Equity: 1970 to the Present" (Robert Berne and Leanna Stiefel); (2) "School Finance Litigation in the Name of Educational Equity: Its Evolution, Impact, and Future" (Paul A. Minorini and Stephen D. Sugarman); (3) "The Impact of Court-Mandated School Finance Reform" (William N. Evans, Sheila E. Murray, and Robert M. Schwab); (4) "Court-Mandated School Finance Reform: What Do the New Dollars Buy?" (Margaret E. Goertz and Gary Natriello); (5) "The Politics of School Finance in the 1990s" (Melissa C. Carr and Susan H. Fuhrman); (6) "Educational Adequacy and the Courts: The Promise and Problems of Moving to a New Paradigm" (Paul A. Minorini and Stephen D. Sugarman); (7) "Enabling 'Adequacy' To Achieve Reality: Translating Adequacy into State School Finance Distribution Arrangements" (James W. Guthrie and Richard Rothstein); and (8) "Performance Standards and Educational Cost Indexes: You Can't Have One without the Other" (William D. Duncombe and John M. Yinger). Each paper contains references. (Contains 29 tables and 4 boxes.) (SLD).

Handbook of Research in Education Finance and Policy
Handbook of Research in Education Finance and Policy

Author: Helen F. Ladd

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-12-17

Total Pages: 693

ISBN-13: 1135041067

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Sponsored by the Association for Education Finance and Policy (AEFP), the second edition of this groundbreaking handbook assembles in one place the existing research-based knowledge in education finance and policy, with particular attention to elementary and secondary education. Chapters from the first edition have been fully updated and revised to reflect current developments, new policies, and recent research. With new chapters on teacher evaluation, alternatives to traditional public schooling, and cost-benefit analysis, this volume provides a readily available current resource for anyone involved in education finance and policy. The Handbook of Research in Education Finance and Policy traces the evolution of the field from its initial focus on school inputs and revenue sources used to finance these inputs, to a focus on educational outcomes and the larger policies used to achieve them. Chapters show how decision making in school finance inevitably interacts with decisions about governance, accountability, equity, privatization, and other areas of education policy. Because a full understanding of important contemporary issues requires inputs from a variety of perspectives, the Handbook draws on contributors from a number of disciplines. Although many of the chapters cover complex, state-of-the-art empirical research, the authors explain key concepts in language that non-specialists can understand. This comprehensive, balanced, and accessible resource provides a wealth of factual information, data, and wisdom to help educators improve the quality of education in the United States.

School Finance and Education Equity
School Finance and Education Equity

Author: Bruce D. Baker

Publisher: Harvard Education Press

Published: 2022-10-18

Total Pages: 363

ISBN-13: 1682536823

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This inspiring account of bipartisan political success delivers an expert breakdown of how and why Kansas—a politically conservative state—was able to craft a stable, balanced, and equitable system of funding for its public schools. Beyond a chronicle of one state’s achievements, School Finance and Education Equity provides invaluable policy guidance and lays out a blueprint that other states can use to strengthen their own public education systems. Readers are given an insider’s tour of the Kansas story by Bruce D. Baker, an academic researcher and expert witness in school finance litigation. With more than two decades of involvement with the state, Baker combines historical background, legal analysis, and political and economic contextual data—along with a gleaming wit—to present a thorough, enlightening narrative of Kansas’s K–12 funding journey. As Baker points out, other states can find much to learn here. He shows that, when it comes to school finance, Kansas serves as an exemplar in aligning resources to meet the promises of its constitution. State leaders rejected the pervasive notion that money doesn’t matter in education, and they gathered the data to prove that it does. Baker emphasizes that this kind of slow and steady success hinges on the ability of stakeholders to remain involved over time. Continuity is vitally important. Baker’s account highlights how persistence can overcome opposition, continuity can aid reform, and incremental gains can lead to big change. In an era of national ideological polarization and political and economic volatility, the lessons from Kansas are especially illuminating.

Systems for State Science Assessment
Systems for State Science Assessment

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2005-12-28

Total Pages: 248

ISBN-13: 0309165091

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In response to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), Systems for State Science Assessment explores the ideas and tools that are needed to assess science learning at the state level. This book provides a detailed examination of K-12 science assessment: looking specifically at what should be measured and how to measure it. Along with reading and mathematics, the testing of science is a key component of NCLBâ€"it is part of the national effort to establish challenging academic content standards and develop the tools to measure student progress toward higher achievement. The book will be a critical resource for states that are designing and implementing science assessments to meet the 2007-2008 requirements of NCLB. In addition to offering important information for states, Systems for State Science Assessment provides policy makers, local schools, teachers, scientists, and parents with a broad view of the role of testing and assessment in science education.

Educational Inequality and School Finance
Educational Inequality and School Finance

Author: Bruce D. Baker

Publisher: Harvard Education Press

Published: 2021-02-09

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 1682532445

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In Educational Inequality and School Finance, Bruce D. Baker offers a comprehensive examination of how US public schools receive and spend money. Drawing on extensive longitudinal data and numerous studies of states and districts, he provides a vivid and dismaying portrait of the stagnation of state investment in public education and the continuing challenges of achieving equity and adequacy in school funding. Baker explores school finance, the school and classroom resources derived from school funding, and how and why those resources matter. He provides a critical examination of popular assumptions that undergird the policy discourse around school funding—notably, that money doesn’t matter and that we are spending more and getting less—and shows how these misunderstandings contribute to our reluctance to increase investment in education at a time when the demands on our educational system are rising. Through an introduction to the concepts of adequacy, equity, productivity, and efficiency, Baker shows how these can be used to evaluate policy reforms. He argues that we know a great deal about the role and importance of money in schools, the mechanisms through which money matters for student outcomes, and the trade-offs involved, and he presents a framework for designing and financing an equitable and adequate public education system, with balanced and stable sources of revenue. Educational Inequality and School Finance takes an issue all too often relegated to technical experts and makes it accessible for broader public empowerment and engagement.