The Experts below are selected from a list of 234 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Allan Odden - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
A 50-State Strategy to Achieve School Finance Adequacy
Educational Policy, 2009Co-Authors: Allan Odden, Lawrence O Picus, Michael GoetzAbstract:This article estimates the costs of School Finance adequacy in each of the 50 states and Washington, D.C. by applying the recommendations from an evidence-based model to the student characteristics...
-
Redesigning School Finance Systems
2007Co-Authors: Allan OddenAbstract:CPRE researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have been working on School Finance redesign since 1990. The issue that has driven this effort has been the goal of state standards-based education reform and, more recently, of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act to teach all students to high standards. This goal has shifted the orientation of the education system from inputs to outcomes--student achievement to rigorous performance standards--with an attendant accountability focus at the School site. In the broader School Finance community, this focus has induced a shift from "equity" to "adequacy," for both litigation and policy. Though adequacy narrowly seeks to identify the level of dollars needed to produce a desired level of student achievement, its more general objective is to redesign the Finance system to link resource levels and resource-use practices more directly to student learning. This policy brief describes how CPRE has approached this agenda over the past decade and a half, and reveals how our current Finance research has begun to explicitly link the level and use of resources with strategies that districts and Schools can deploy to literally double student performance over a 5to 10-year period. During the time period over which this Finance research agenda has evolved, we believe it has succeeded in linking School Finance equity and adequacy, both by aligning effective allocation and use of resources to the most powerful and comprehensive Schoolbased strategies to boost student learning and by identifying strategies for how and how much to pay teachers. Disciplines Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research | Education Economics | Education Policy Comments View on the CPRE website. This policy brief is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/cpre_policybriefs/34
-
The New School Finance.
Phi Delta Kappan, 2001Co-Authors: Allan OddenAbstract:School Finance analysts need to identify the cost of education programs that work and the costs and structures of teacher salary systems that can find and keep high-quality teachers. Next, says Mr. Odden, they must incorporate these cost findings into School Finance structures that provide each district and School with an adequate level of fiscal resources. Schools then need to use the resources for those effective programs. School Finance is changing fundamentally. Long focused on fiscal equity, School Finance is shifting toward fiscal adequacy in the context of standards-based education reform. The new School Finance encompasses not only inputs but also educational processes and results, including teacher compensation. For the past five years, a large portion of the Finance-related research of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) has been organized around the new School Finance issues involved in this shift. The first section of this article describes the two primary factors that require a rethinking of School Finance. The second section summarizes five sets of research findings related to these new directions in School Finance. Two Major Factors The shift in School Finance from equity to adequacy is caused by many factors, but two dominate: the goals and demands of standards-based education reform and the focus of current School Finance litigation. Standards-based education reform seeks to educate students to high performance standards. The benchmark of the new School Finance is whether it provides adequate per-pupil revenues for districts and Schools to employ educational strategies that are successful in educating students to those standards. Determining adequate revenue levels entails first identifying the costs of effective programs and strategies and then translating those costs into appropriate School Finance structures. Implementing this approach should also produce gains in fiscal equity because in most states it requires a "leveling up" of low-spending districts. This new focus for School Finance was recommended by the recent report of the National Research Council's Committee on Education Finance Equity, Adequacy, and Productivity.1 These shifts in School Finance have already changed the core of School Finance litigation from equity to adequacy.2 The legal test for adequacy is whether a state's School Finance system provides sufficient revenues for the average School to teach the average student to state- determined performance standards and whether sufficient additional revenues are provided to help special-needs students also achieve at those performance levels. The legal problem is not really whether district A has less than district B but whether both districts - indeed all districts in the state - have revenues that are adequate to pay for the programs and strategies they need in order to educate students to high achievement levels. CPRE Finance Research Findings For the past several years, the CPRE agenda for research on education Finance has addressed many of the issues raised by standards-based education reform and the legal shift to adequacy. This next section describes key aspects of the new School Finance, and the five sections that follow discuss research findings on those aspects: determining the adequate spending level, formula funding of Schools, resource reallocation, teacher compensation, and how to tie new approaches to teacher compensation into the funding structure. Shape of the New School Finance Drawing both from the definition of adequacy in School Finance litigation3 and from the implications for Finance of standards-based education,4 CPRE has been working to identify the shape of the new School Finance. Allowing districts to select their own spending levels is no longer sufficient, because all districts and Schools must spend at least at an adequate level to meet the new performance standards. …
-
School Finance Systems: Aging Structures in Need of Renovation
Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 1998Co-Authors: Allan Odden, William H. CluneAbstract:This article argues that traditional School Finance systems are aging structures in need of dramatic change to make them more supportive of the goals and strategies of standards-and School-based education reform. This article reviews the shortcomings of current Finance structures, provides several suggestions for changing School Finance structures, including a shift from fiscal equity toward educational adequacy, and also suggests several performance enhancement elements that could enhance such new School Finance systems.
-
School Finance a policy perspective
1992Co-Authors: Allan Odden, Lawrence O PicusAbstract:Equity in School Finance - problems, issues, frameworks and new approaches adequacy, productivity and efficiency - problems, issues and new approaches policy and management innovations for addressing equity, adequacy and productivity in School Finance.
Lawrence O Picus - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
A 50-State Strategy to Achieve School Finance Adequacy
Educational Policy, 2009Co-Authors: Allan Odden, Lawrence O Picus, Michael GoetzAbstract:This article estimates the costs of School Finance adequacy in each of the 50 states and Washington, D.C. by applying the recommendations from an evidence-based model to the student characteristics...
-
A computer simulation for teaching School Finance
Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 1994Co-Authors: Jonathan Brock, Lawrence O PicusAbstract:An important public policy issue is the allocation and distribution of revenues among different levels of government. The branch of economics that studies intergovernmental fiscal relations provides an excellent description of the anticipated impact that can be expected when there are changes in the level of intergovernmental fiscal aid from one level of government to another [see, for example, Musgrave and Musgrave, 1989]. Despite this theoretical understanding, it is often difficult for policymakers and students of public policy to fully understand the policy and revenue implications of changes in the distribution of funds from one level of government to another. Equally important, the redistribution of resources often creates difficult political issues in the Congress or state legislatures. This article describes a computer simulation that was developed to help students of educational Finance develop a better understanding of the revenue and policy effects of changes in School Finance distribution formulas. Through this understanding, policymakers and students of School Finance will also gain more knowledge about the potential political implications of changes to the way funds are allocated to School districts. It is indicative of the kinds of simulations that can be developed in other policy settings to understand what happens when the fiscal relationship between one level of government and another is changed. The field of School Finance studies the allocation and distribution of public funds to School districts within a state. State School Finance formulas are designed to equalize differences in local School district ability to raise funds from their own property tax collections. The typical state distribution formula provides fiscal aid to districts in inverse relationship to its own fiscal capacity, usually measured in terms of assessed property value per pupil. Some states include a measure of personal income in the determination of a district's fiscal capacity. The goal of a School funding formula is to reduce revenue disparities among School districts that result from differences in fiscal capacity, and to move the state toward fiscal neutrality. If a state were to create a totally fiscally neutral system, each School district's revenue per pupil would be determined entirely on the level of property tax effort it expended, regardless of its assessed valuation per pupil. Because of the large amount of money spent on our nation's public Schools, most graduate programs in educational leadership offer courses designed to teach students the basics of School Finance. Although each of the 50 states uses a different funding allocation formula, there are a relatively small number of basic principles and formulas that govern the distribution of state funds to
-
School Finance a policy perspective
1992Co-Authors: Allan Odden, Lawrence O PicusAbstract:Equity in School Finance - problems, issues, frameworks and new approaches adequacy, productivity and efficiency - problems, issues and new approaches policy and management innovations for addressing equity, adequacy and productivity in School Finance.
Caroline M. Hoxby - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
All School Finance Equalizations are Not Created Equal
The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2001Co-Authors: Caroline M. HoxbyAbstract:School Finance equalization has probably affected American Schools more than any other reform of the last 30 years. Understanding it is a prerequisite for making optimal social investments in human capital. Yet, it is poorly understood. In this paper I explain why: it differs from conventional redistribution because it is based on property values, which are endogenous to Schools' productivity, taste for education, and the School Finance system itself. I characterize equalization schemes and show why some "level down" and others "level up." Schemes that strongly level down have unintended consequences: even poor districts can end up worse off. I also show how School Finance equalization affects property prices, private School attendance, and student achievement.
-
All School Finance Equalizations Are Not Created Equal
National Bureau of Economic Research, 1998Co-Authors: Caroline M. HoxbyAbstract:Public School Finance equalization programs can be characterized by the change they impose on the tax price of an additional dollar of local School spending. I calculate the tax price of spending for each School district in the United States for 1972, 1982, and 1992. I find that using the actual tax prices (rather than treating School Finance equalizations as events) resolves apparently conflicting evidence about the effects of equalizations on per-pupil spending. Depending on whether they impose tax prices greater than or less than one, School Finance equalizations either enjoy increased spending under most equalization schemes, but they actually lose spending under the strongest schemes such as those that exist in California and New Mexico. More importantly, regardless of whether an equalization levels down or up, it should be understood as a tax system on districts' spending. I show that School Finance equalization schemes have properties that are generally considered undesirable: they raise revenue on a base that is itself a function of the School Finance system and they assign tax prices so that people with a high demand for education are penalized relative to otherwise identical people with the same income. I discuss some simple, familiar schemes that do not have these undesirable properties, yet can achieve similar redistribution.
-
Are Efficiency and Equity in School Finance Substitutes or Complements
Journal of Economic Perspectives, 1996Co-Authors: Caroline M. HoxbyAbstract:This paper analyzes cases made for local and centralized School Finance and policies such as vouchers, categorical aid, and equalization aid. An ideal system of School Finance would achieve efficiency and equity by ensuring every person invests in the amount of Schooling that is socially optimal for him. The author evaluates the empirical evidence for, and the merit and importance of, arguments for each policy. She concludes that the theoretical arguments for centralized Finance not only exaggerate the efficiency-equity tradeoff but actually make better arguments for a system combining local School Finance with categorical aid and means-tested vouchers.
Marilyn A. Hirth - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
Systemic Reform, Equity, and School Finance Reform: Essential Policy Linkages.
Educational Policy, 1996Co-Authors: Marilyn A. HirthAbstract:There is an unquestionable connection between systemic reform, equity, and School Finance reform that requires the attention of educators and policymakers at all levels of government. Instead of disconnected reform initiatives prevalent in the 1980s, the 1990s is the beginning of a new era of educational reform that strives for coordination, integration, and cohesion around a clear set of outcomes. Within this framework of systemic reform, it is essential that policies leading the efforts be coordinated with School Finance reforms that foster equity. This article analyzes the factors that must be considered when forging these linkages. The concepts of equity and adequacy are discussed along with their relationship to School Finance litigation. Examples of linkages between systemic reform and School Finance reform are examined. A policy linkage model is proposed that illustrates the connections between the policy-making bodies, systemic reform initiatives, and the various components of School Finance refor...
Deetta Culbertson - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
-
TX Commission on Public School Finance: Public Testimony
2018Co-Authors: Deetta CulbertsonAbstract:Public Testimony - March 19, 2018 Subcommittee Recommendations: Reforms to Study - Aaron Smith Education Policy Analyst Reason Foundation Testimony to the Texas Commission on Public School Fiannce - Chandra Villanueva, Senior Policy Analyst, Center for Public Policy Priorities School Finance - Paul
-
Texas Commission on Public School Finance to meet in Austin
2018Co-Authors: Deetta CulbertsonAbstract:The Texas Commission on Public School Finance will meet on Tuesday, Jan. 23, at 10 a.m. in Room 1-104 of the William B. Travis Building, 1701 North Congress, in Austin.Created in 2017 during a special session of the 85th Texas Legislature, the 13-member Commission was established to develop and make recommendations for improvements to the current public School Finance system or for new methods of financing public Schools.