In the "Sydney Morning Herald" of 23 March 2005, Ross Gittins argued that the funding arrangements for private schools positively encourage parents to move their children from the state system. The then Federal Minister for Education, Dr Brendan Nelson, in a letter to the "Herald" of 25-27 March, responded by saying that 68% of all school pupils go to state schools, and those students receive 76% of Government funds allocated to the totality of all pupils attending schools....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Public Policy, Private Schools, Educational Finance, Foreign Countries, Educational...
This paper is set against a history of school funding policies in Australia that begins with the first public policy recognition of the disadvantages experienced by government and non-government schools in the 1973 Schools in Australia (Karmel) Report. The paper traces a history of school funding policy linking it with the current backlash against public education and retaliatory backlash constructions of public schools as the new disadvantaged in an increasingly competitive and deregulated...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Public Policy, Politics, State Schools, Public Education, Private...
In 1997, the Illinois legislature passed House Bill 542 (Public Act 90-548) which changed teacher tenure requirements to a four-year, multi-tiered system that called for the accumulation of professional development credit for all teachers. The primary purpose of this study was to examine district responses to the 1997 legislation. To what degree, if any, did legislative requirements regarding the professional development of teachers affect the manner and means through which districts provided...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Faculty Development, Professional Development, Human Resources, State School District...
This article describes a school where at-risk students get an opportunity to finish their secondary education in a smaller learning environment that embraces hands-on learning, one in which each student's strengths and weaknesses are known, and teachers work with their wards to give them an academic and technical education that will help them succeed post high school. Chana High School is a continuation school located approximately four miles north of downtown Auburn near Sacramento,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Classroom Techniques, Federal Legislation, Educational Finance, High Risk Students,...
There is no shortage of places in higher education--most noncompetitive colleges could admit more students, but institutions often struggle to get the class that they want. Professionals consider the admission process successful when they are able to configure a class that meets the institution's many missions and notions, rather than just attracting a general group of students who want to learn. Therefore, admission actions and policies, to some extent, create a mismatch in supply and demand...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Admission Criteria, Student Recruitment, Access to Education,...
The perspectives of three rural middle school principals as they implement Georgia's A Plus Education Reform Act of 2000 were investigated in this study. A case study approach was used, employing both within case and cross case analyses. Three interviews were conducted with each of the three participants, resulting in a total of nine interviews. Five perspectives emerged from the data: (1) Evaluation of teacher effectiveness can be indicated only by the results of standardized tests, (2)...
Topics: ERIC Archive, School Schedules, Middle Schools, Teacher Effectiveness, Supervision, Standardized...
This research study was designed to build grounded theory about the challenges faced by rural superintendents. Participating rural superintendents identified five areas that presented a challenge but that also applied to superintendents in other settings: school law, finance, personnel, government mandates, and district or board policies. Further, these superintendents identified challenges related specifically to the rural setting and to their lack of acculturation to the demands of rural...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Rural Schools, Focus Groups, School Law, Instructional Leadership, Superintendents,...
Following two-failed school bond issues in 1995 and 1998, one mid-sized rural school district organized an effort that led to two successful school bond elections in 2001 and 2003. The school district's strategic plan mirrored many of the recommendations for successful bond referendums published in School Bond Success: A Strategy for Building America's Schools. Findings from this case study, utilizing a Rapid Assessment Process, illustrate many of the reasons why the school district passed two...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Strategic Planning, Rural Schools, Elections, Bond Issues, School Districts,...
The consolidation of rural schools in the United States has been a controversial topic for policy-makers, school administrators, and rural communities since the 1800s. At issue in the consolidation movement have been concerns of efficiency, economics, student achievement, school size, and community identity. Throughout the history of schooling in America, school consolidation has been a way to solve rural issues in the eyes of policy makers and many education officials. Today, faced with...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Rural Schools, Consolidated Schools, Declining Enrollment, Academic Achievement,...
School variables, such as school size and school location, matter. School size and location impact many areas of education, including the characteristics of the school, curriculum, and post-school outcomes. Research reveals that students in rural schools face many personal and education hardships--from living in poverty to having less opportunity and sophistication in technology. Rural schools also have fewer course offerings. While rural schools are a unique, urban and rural schools may be...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Rural Schools, Poverty, School Size, School Location, Institutional...
Historically, rural schools have been geographically and politically isolated to the extent that some might say that they have been the victims of, or beneficiaries from, an unstated government policy of benign neglect. Recently, conditions and relationships have changed with the enactment of state and federal accountability legislation and legal challenges to the constitutionality of state funding systems for schools. Federal concerns about the quality of teachers and the progress of students...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Rural Schools, State Standards, Educational Finance, Graduation Requirements,...
Students, faculty, administration, and community members of three Iowa rural school districts were interviewed to identify educational issues in their communities. The results of the Iowa investigation are compared with the results of the Claremont Graduate School investigation published in "Voices from the inside: A report on schooling from inside the classroom" (1992). The Claremont study investigated large urban schools. The Iowa study provides insight into small, rural school...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Rural Schools, School Districts, Teacher Student Relationship, School...
On January 25, 2001, at an elementary school in Washington, DC, President Bush said that testing is crucial "to determine whether or not children are learning." Testing is appealing to many because it is simple and easy. Americans want to believe that instituting something as routine and common as yearly testing will miraculously provide the solution to the complex problems in schools. Unfortunately, there are no such easy answers. The litany of school problems is as complex as the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Administration, Testing Programs, High Stakes Tests, Presidents, Student...
This article examines the contribution of the No Child Left Behind Act. The authors believe that the "other means" that can substantially advance equal educational opportunity are to provide "meaningful educational opportunities" for all children in each of the schools that they attend. In this article, the authors discuss meaningful educational opportunity and describe the statutory framework for implementing this standard.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Equal Education, Federal Legislation, Educational Opportunities, Federal Programs,...
Cyber schools, also known as virtual schools, are noteworthy charter school developments that provide viable options for education. Charter schools in general and cyber charter schools in particular are not "revenue neutral" to local school districts. Nationwide, hundreds of millions of dollars allocated for education are being routed into charter schools. As parents opt for cyber schools to augment home-school resources, the funding burden shifts from the family to the taxpayers...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Funding Formulas, Charter Schools, Governance, Virtual Classrooms, Educational...
The discussion begins with an overview of the historical struggle for independence in Indigenous education and highlights the success in the provision of quality education by the community-controlled sector, and more specifically, Tranby. The right to self-determination is then contextualised against a backdrop of the Royal Commission Into Aboriginal Deaths In Custody (RCIADIC) and within a framework of international legal authority. Finally the diminution of funding for Indigenous education is...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Indigenous Populations, Educational Quality, Self Determination, Educational...
The U.S. Department of Education (USDOE, 2004) administers a formula grant program to states that is intended to increase the academic achievement of students in mathematics and science by enhancing the content knowledge and teaching skills of classroom teachers. Partnerships between high-need school districts and the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty in institutions of higher education are at the core of these improvement efforts. These programs articulate the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematics Education, Rural Schools, Educational Change, Rural Areas, Grants,...
Emiliana Vegas surveys strategies used by the world's developing countries to fill their classrooms with qualified teachers. With their low quality of education and wide gaps in student outcomes, schools in developing countries strongly resemble hard-to-staff urban U.S. schools. Their experience with reform may thus provide insights for U.S. policymakers. Severe budget constraints and a lack of teacher training capacity have pushed developing nations to try a wide variety of reforms, including...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teacher Education Programs, Educational Quality, Teacher Salaries, Teacher Shortage,...
This review of literature was written in preparation for conducting a research study on the U.S. community college system as a potential model for developing countries, and using Vietnam as a specific case. It is divided into four sections: (a) a discussion of the purposes of higher education (HE), (b) an examination of problems faced by the HE systems in developing countries, (c) a description of Vietnam's HE context, and (d) perspectives concerning U.S. community colleges. The literature...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teacher Salaries, Higher Education, Community Colleges, Institutional Autonomy,...
This article presents the New England Journal of Higher Education (NEJHE) Trends & Indicators in Higher Education, featuring 64 tables and charts exploring New England's demography, high school performance and graduation, college enrollment, college graduation rates and degree production, higher education financing, and university research. The figures presented in this report are organized to correspond with the four goals of the New England Board of Higher Education's (NEBHE's)...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Management Systems, School Readiness, Graduation Rate, Demography,...
New England and the nation as a whole is facing intensifying global competition and rapidly growing demands for a skilled workforce. In addition, significant increases in spending by students and taxpayers have not moved the needle: the percentage of adults with a college degree has changed little over the past decade. New England must act now to boost productivity because key trends suggest that only little time has been left. This article presents the four converging trends that spell serious...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Educational Attainment, Global Approach, Labor Force, Educational...
The author discusses teaching early child mathematics in an environment of unique challenge in a remote region of Western Australia. The challenges include: (1) a high proportion of transient students; (2) a student population that is forty percent aboriginal, many for whom English is a second language; (3) students who consistently perform below the general student population in numeracy assessments; (4) teachers who are experiencing professional isolation; and (5) high financial costs, time...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Professional Isolation, Foreign Countries, Arithmetic, Teaching Methods, Early...
Educators, economists and policymakers agree that raising the level of achievement for more learners is important. Studies of global workforce competitiveness regularly point toward the goal of nearly everyone achieving skills and knowledge commensurate with at least two years of higher education. According to this author, educators have increased equity at the K-12 level for those least-served by their public education systems by demanding that the same standards be used for all learners....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Elementary Secondary Education, Cultural Literacy, Graduation,...
The seventh recommendation in ACTE's postsecondary reform position statement is to pilot innovative approaches to funding. Public postsecondary providers are expected to fulfill a number of educational missions linked to separate funding streams, such as academic coursework, workforce education and training, distance education and research. These diverse missions host a variety of outcome expectations that can challenge those involved in directing the institution. Thoughtful consideration of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Credentials, Noncredit Courses, Community Colleges, Distance Education, Postsecondary...
Economists and business leaders have recognized the role played by colleges and universities in driving economic development through their purchasing and employment (to say nothing of their longer-term contributions to workforce development and knowledge creation) and the institutions often promote that impact in order to gain public and political support. However, the economic impact of public and private elementary and secondary schools has been noticeably absent from the discussion. This...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Economic Development, Higher Education, Elementary Secondary Education, Economic...
In this new era of globalization, it is more important than ever for the American citizens to have a college education so they can obtain good jobs and have a fair chance at the American Dream, but it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to get such an education--including in New England. According to the most recent report of the College Board, the region's four-year colleges--both public and private--continue to be the most expensive in the nation. In this article, the author states...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Federal Aid, Student Loan Programs, Public Colleges, Student...
According to a February 9, 2006 "New York Times" story headlined, "Panel Explores Standard Tests for Colleges," a new accountability era is descending upon a resistant higher education domain. The story describes the deliberations of a Bush-appointed commission considering imposition of standardized tests on college students. Ten days earlier, the "Boston Globe" reported that Massachusetts community colleges have a three-year graduation rate of 16 percent. Last...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Colleges, Graduation Rate, Outcomes of Education, Standardized Tests, Accountability,...
America's current systems of K-12 and higher education are based on the traditional view that only an elite group of students attends college. Today, the majority of students attend some form of postsecondary education after high school. These students encounter numerous challenges: many do not complete their programs of study, almost half the students in higher education require remediation, and college-going and completion rates are inequitable in terms of income level, race and ethnicity. As...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Elementary Secondary Education, Educational Policy, Articulation...
Increasingly, leaders of public colleges and universities around the country are faced with the challenge of fulfilling their missions in the face of continuing disinvestment by the states. In this article, the author discusses how public colleges and universities will adapt to a model in which they are expected to supply their own operating revenues while continuing to serve their states and nation for the greater public good. He suggests that today's leaders in higher education will have to...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Public Colleges, College Presidents, Institutional Mission,...
New England may be the wealthiest region in the United States, but it is also the oldest and slowest-growing, and among the least diverse. These peculiar demographic characteristics combined with New England's history of heavy reliance on local governments suggest future problems for the region's educational systems. Since most public schools in New England are financed principally by local property taxes, any decline in the income of homeowners, and by extension, their ability or willingness...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Finance, School District Wealth, Educational Equity (Finance), Economic...
This article is part of a yearlong series that will more closely examine the recommendations made in ACTE's postsecondary reform position statement and highlight best practices for implementing each of the recommendations. The sixth recommendation in ACTE's postsecondary reform position statement is to increase financial support for low-income students. Cost barriers and the absence of strategies to increase financial aid often result in fewer opportunities for all students to access...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Postsecondary Education, Student Financial Aid, Vocational Education, Grants, Low...
Today, it is increasingly difficult for states to adequately satisfy the demand for well-funded and quality public services, such as K-12 education by relying exclusively on traditional, broad-based taxes for fiscal support. State sponsored lotteries are an increasingly popular, non-traditional revenue stream for public education. There is in many cases, however, a gap between their promoted benefit to public K-12 schools and the actual fiscal support they provide. This article examines the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Finance, Public Education, Elementary Secondary Education, Public...
Over the last three decades 45 states have been confronted with school finance lawsuits. This phenomenon has led to a proliferation of school funding equity studies. However, to date, most studies of the equity of state school finance systems have focused on differences in expenditures between school districts. More recent research has found evidence that this approach overlooks important allocation decisions made at the district level, thus failing to identify continuing inequity. The few...
Topics: ERIC Archive, State Schools, Poverty, Educational Finance, Disadvantaged Youth, School Districts,...
What role does a person's support for local educational control play in determining her attitude towards equity-minded school finance reform? This article reports estimations of binary and ordered probit models of two state public opinion polls and discusses newspaper coverage from the same two states to determine if and how local control has such an effect. The results from both analyses show that a person's commitment to local financial control is a consistent predictor of her evaluation of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Opinions, Finance Reform, Educational Finance, Newspapers, Democratic Values, Mass...
This paper provides an analysis of current educational finance debates in Manitoba within a broader discussion of the essential character of public education in Canada. Arguing that public accessibility and equity, public funding, and public control constitute three touchstones of public education, the paper describes the Manitoba debates over provincial and local funding of schools and the use of property taxes to fund education and analyzes them in relation to these criteria. Significant...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Taxes, Educational Finance, Foreign Countries, Boards of Education, Public Education,...
Rural communities that envision a bright future for themselves and their children have become innovative out of necessity--they learn, and adapt, in order to flourish and to provide opportunities for their children. As the formal centers of learning, and often as the largest employer in the community, rural schools become the heart and symbol of learning and community identity. Unfortunately, their policy and legislative environments often lead to tensions between rural priorities/lifestyles...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Environment, Educational Quality, Rural Schools, School Districts,...
Distance education in Brazil has evolved more slowly than distance education offerings in other developing countries. This is because all aspects of Brazil's publicly-funded educational system are excessively regulated, highly bureaucratic, and tightly centralized. Such highly centralized bureaucracy and strict control has resulted in tremendous hurdles that work to thwart the adoption, provision, and diffusion of distance education. This is not good news: Like many developing countries, Brazil...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Poverty, Open Universities, Distance Education, Population Distribution, Global...
Increasingly, K-12 administrators must address the need for greater funding for their systems and schools. This article presents methods used in higher education that may be of use to its K-12 colleagues. It further suggests professional development to support school leaders in making use of these strategies.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Elementary Secondary Education, Administrators, Fund Raising,...
Educating a student with special needs became an interest in Jordan at the end of the 1960s. This article provides an overview of the general and special education systems in Jordan. Historical and demographical information is included for the purpose of placing the education of children in Jordan within the context of its land and the population of Jordan. The general education system and special Education system in Jordan is reviewed in depth. Issues related to the current practices and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Special Education, Disabilities, Special Needs Students, General...
The 1988-89 Budget provides more detail on the Commonwealth's intentions for higher education as outlined in the Green and White Papers. This article focuses on one consequence of the Budget: the decline in operating grants per student in the period 1989 to 1991. Not all the data on expenditure and enrolments necessary for precise estimates are available in the budget papers and it is possible that the government will not proceed with some of its proposals such as the continuing transfer of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Finance, Grants, Expenditure per Student, Student Costs, Scholarship...
With no specific state or federal mandates to districts to maintain comprehensive technology infrastructure, how do districts, in the face of mounting financial pressures, continue to build and maintain their networks, integrate their systems, and expand their resources in a way that is reasonably "budget-proof?" In this article, the author describes how Pawtucket, Rhode Island, an urban district of 16 schools with 9,000 students, has achieved this goal by buying and building terminal...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Computer Uses in Education, Educational Technology, Technology Integration, Urban...
This article discusses the ongoing effort of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to bring higher education services within the purview of the General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS). One result of the anticipated liberalization of trade in education, the author explains, is the headlong rush of Anglophone universities into the global market for higher education services. Will liberal educational ideals (and the job base built around them) wither away entirely in the entrepreneurial race...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Global Approach, Competition, Marketing, Student Recruitment,...
Financial aid systems help make higher education available to all who can benefit. To "adjust" the existing financial aid system to make it more student friendly and open doors currently closed to many part-time learners and students with the greatest financial challenges, state policy changes and greater private sector initiatives targeted at workforce can use creative strategies, including altering state-based programs, creating new learning tax incentives, coordinating...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Financial Aid, Educational Finance, Finance Reform, Financial Policy,...
If higher education is a right, and distance education is the avenue for making higher education universally available, then who shall pay? This article asks (1) can state governments in the United States afford to fund this initiative and (2) can public higher education institutions in the U.S. fund this effort through capitalizing on cost-efficiencies of online learning? To answer the first question, data on funding of higher education by states are reviewed and a negative conclusion reached....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Distance Education, Online Courses, Paying for College, Educational...
During the 2002-03 fiscal crisis in Massachusetts, Gov. Mitt Romney proposed sweeping changes for public colleges in the state. Among them was a proposal to privatize three highly specialized colleges, including the Massachusetts College of Art and Design (MassArt), the nation's only independent public college of art and design. The rationale was that the college could not only survive, but also "soar" with an independent status. But when trustees and administrators examined Romney's...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Visual Arts, School Maintenance, Public Colleges, Educational Finance, Trustees,...
The demands of society and constraints on resources will require change in the financing models states use to fund their higher education enterprises. Models built on the priorities of student access and institutional growth will no longer suffice. Those based on student success and productivity increases consistent with getting more entering students through the pipeline will become ascendant. Models based on preserving the status quo will have to give way to those that foster purposive...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Educational Finance, Public Policy, Financial Support, Full Time...
The implementation of both blended learning and web-based programs is becoming more prevalent within higher education in Canada. Thus, there is increasing reliance upon e-learning tools to support student learning in a variety of teaching environments. Typically, budgetary and programmatic decisions regarding the investment of e-learning resources are made by information technology (IT) administrators and/or professors. However, students are the primary beneficiary of most IT investments. This...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Information Technology, Foreign Countries, Curriculum Implementation, College...
This paper examines the reality of teaching math in the rural southeast. Rural districts have low student expenditures and high transportation costs, due in part to the limited tax-base available. This leaves limited funds for technology. Universities prepare preservice teachers to teach math using the latest technology, however, many of these preservice teachers will return to classrooms with limited or out-dated technology. This paper presents a case-study of preservice students' education...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematics Instruction, Rural Areas, Rural Environment, Rural Schools, Educational...
Globalization and market liberalization served to displace the perception of education as a socialized concept of basic needs and human rights in favour of one that views it as just another commodity in the marketplace. Increasingly, educational structures were dismantled and replaced by new policies and procedures aimed at restructuring postsecondary education to follow a global trend of corporatization and create a "market responsive" sector. As a result, the delivery of quality...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Social Systems, Educational Finance, Global Approach, Ideology, Educational Change,...
This study explores within-district fiscal resource allocation across elementary schools in Texas and Ohio large city school districts and in their surrounding metropolitan areas. Specifically, I ask whether districts widely reported as achieving greater resource equity through adoption of Weighted Student Funding (WSF) have in fact done so. I compare Houston Independent School District (a WSF district) to other large Texas cities and Cincinnati (also using WSF) to other large Ohio cities....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Finance, Resource Allocation, Educational Equity (Finance), Costs, Urban...