Eric A. Houck

Teacher Quality and School Resegregation: A Resource Allocation Case Study

This article uses a school finance equity framework to examine the distribution of resources across the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) during a policy shift toward neighborhood-based student assignment between 1999 and 2004. Findings from this analysis confirm that MNPS schools are resegregating. Additionally, this study finds that, although Nashville students from poor and minority backgrounds received additional resources from the district in the form of reduced pupil/teacher ratios, they faced challenges in the form of higher percentages of inexperienced teachers and reduced average teacher salaries. Finally, this analysis provides evidence to suggest that these inequitable relationships worsen slightly over time.

The Life and Death of Desegregation Policy in Wake County Public School System and Charlotte­Mecklenburg Schools

The state of North Carolina is one of few states in the South in which two large districts committed to desegregating schools in the early 1970s. However, the state’s two largest districts, Charlotte-Mecklenberg Schools (CMS) and Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) have experienced ups and downs in their policy commitment to desegregated schools. This article utilizes a cross-case policy analysis to examine levels of segregation in CMS and WCPSS over a 10-year period. In addition, the authors examine school finance data to determine whether district spending and local and federal contributions have an effect on student outcomes in CMS and WCPSS. The authors also compare district outcomes against the backdrop of student assignment policy within each district. Findings indicate that despite spending mechanisms, both districts have become more segregated over time and that the achievement gap has narrowed between the districts’ students.

Intradistrict Resource Allocation: Key Findings and Policy Implications:

The focus on school-level performance brought about by the No Child Left Behind Act—as well as recent court cases challenging the use of race in student assignment polices—has brought greater attention to the need to for careful study of the allocation of resources within school districts. This paper describes the policy context, review key intradistrict studies, and proffers three extensions to the field of intradistrict resource analysis: consideration of teacher labor markets, consideration of the resource implications of peer effects, and the use of additional statistical methods such as quantile regression. Taken together, these topics have the promise to extend the field of intradsitrict resource allocation.

Examining School District Efficiency in Georgia

This article examines the relative production efficiency of school districts in Georgia using the modified quadriform method. Overall, we find that the modified quadriform allows state-level policymakers to access a basic tool for analysis that makes relative comparison of school district productivity for use in policy analysis and policy development. While the results of this study are in line with studies in other states using the modified quadriform, we also note that performance in Georgia is tied to a host of community characteristics as well as the percentage of expenditures dedicated to instruction.

A Narrow Path Through the Broad Middle: Mapping Institutional Considerations for ESEA Reauthorization

This article uses an institutional framework to analyze the political context of the next reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The authors analyze three relevant factors in the institutional environment: the role of traditional party politics, including theories of divided versus unified party government; the entrance of new players, both interest groups and think tanks, into the education policy arena; and stresses on the traditional coalition that historically supported education reform. The authors compare DW-Nominate ratings for the 107th Congress (which passed the No Child Left Behind Act) and the 111th Congress (which concluded in 2010) to measure the ideology of members of the education committees and the Congress as a whole. Although both education committees have witnessed aggregate shifts in a more conservative direction, the authors argue that the 112th Congress, which convenes for the first time in January 2011, is unlikely to pass President Obamas centrist education agenda, as a majority-Republican House, ideological divisions within each political party, and the politics of an upcoming presidential election are factors that militate against a bills enactment before 2012.

Introduction to the Peabody Journal of Education's Special Issue on the Future of School Finance Research

K–12 education finance and economics issues confront policymakers, practitioners, and researchers with a host of confounding practical and theoretical questions that do not hold simple solutions. Nationally, implementation of the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 challenges parents, educators, and community members to reexamine perspectives, policies, practices, and objectives regarding our commitment to public education. State governors and legislators face the effects of a slow-growth economy, the resultant shortage of state revenues, and citizen-sponsored litigation regarding inequitable or inadequate levels of school funding. Concomitantly, local education agencies must respond to these policy and revenue changes by increasing taxes or issuing long-term bonds to finance short-term debt. And, because finance and economic issues are the foundations of public policy, educational reform issues ultimately become education finance and economic policy concerns. As such, researchers in the

Resource Distribution and Graduation Rates in SREB States: An Overview.

Throughout the past two decades, an orientation toward standards-based reform has underpinned efforts of educational policy reform (Smith & O’Day, 1991). Led in part by political and educational leaders in Southern states, standards-based reform was fully realized at the national level with the enactment of No Child Left Behind in 2002 (McDermott, 2003). With its focus on assessment and accountability, the legislation has had an undeniable impact on the teaching and learning that occurs in schools throughout the country and has brought increased attention to the performance of America’s schools. In accordance with No Child Left Behind, high schools across the country currently employ two primary measures of formal evaluation—standardized test scores and graduation rates. As such, increased attention has been focused on these outcomes and the nation’s poor graduation rates have become an issue of national concern. Although educators and policymakers are focused on determining successful educational strategies for improving school outcomes for the nation’s high school students, researchers in the field of school finance suggest that the distribution of resources plays a critical role in students’ level of school success. Those in favor of increased spending suggest that student outcomes such as poor achievement and low graduation rates are related to a lack of financial resources and thus challenge the constitutionality of state funding mechanisms. In what is perhaps an unforeseen outcome, the standards movement has advanced the shift from an equity focus to that of an adequacy focus within the field of school finance (Clune, 1994). Essentially, school finance litigation is now focused around outcome measures that arguably serve as indicators of an adequate education (Hanushek & Lindseth, 2009; Rebell, 2008; Rebell & Wardenski, 2004). Recognizing the interrelated nature of the standards movement, school finance litigation, and student outcomes, this study investigates the relationship of school funding and the specific outcome measure of cohort graduation rates in 16 Southern states that comprise the Southern Region Education Board (SREB). Research indicates that Southern schools may be more responsive to structural policy levers than schools outside of the U.S. South (Rumberger & Palardy,

County Funding Versus Municipal Aspiration A Case Study

One town in a countywide school district wants to provide additional financial support for its students. The ensuing debate over governance, finance, and authority strains relationships across the county as multiple political actors and interest groups take sides. The school superintendent takes steps to provide a peaceful resolution to the issue, but uncomfortable questions raised by the debate remain. This case is designed to highlight issues in local school governance, political coalitions, and systemwide leadership.

Comment on Brent Beal's and Heather Olson Beal's “Rethinking the Market Metaphor: School Choice, the Common Good, and the National Football League”

Metaphors are powerful and have the potential to fundamentally alter one’s perception of a given dynamic or situation. Brent Beal’s and Heather Olson Beal’s (this issue) interpretation of the field of public education and school choice as a sports franchise allows us as a community of scholars a window into thinking deeply about the manner in which the multiple, interlocking systems of governance and voice interact to provide adequate systems of public education to a diverse and engaged public. The National Football League (NFL) metaphor is helpful for understanding schools and schooling along a number of dimensions. First, the application of the NFL metaphor acknowledges that successful organizations can thrive with a blend of competition and cooperation in a highly competitive environment. One key insight utilized by the NFL and used as an explanation for its success—a lesson that seems to be lost on the proaccountability and sanctions wing of school reformers—is that investment in aspects of the organization that are struggling can be a critical component of overall success. Failing teams in the NFL gain preferential treatment in terms of player selection and ease of scheduling, and while this is not always enough to turn around underperforming teams, it is sometimes enough to allow improved performance as well as continued contributions to the overall profitability of the NFL as an organization through increased revenues. This model of resource allocation based on poor past performance may seem anathema to some school reformers and school choice advocates who recall this as the basic operating paradigm that came to be labeled “throwing money at failing schools.” The success of the NFL highlights what should be a banal realization: that there are no perfect markets; that constrained markets guided by governmental or voluntary associations are often more successful than free market advocates would have us believe; and that some support for failing components of a wider association can yield benefits overall.

Introduction to the Special Issue on Education in the American South: Historical Perspectives and Contemporary Conditions

Despite a globalized economy, rapid communication via the Internet, and increased mobility, regional differences remain pronounced across the United States. Influenced by rich regional perspectives and histories, each corner of the nation has been shaped by the area’s landscape, racial and ethnic characteristics of its population, dominant cultural and political views, and the nature of the local economy. This special issue of the Peabody Journal of Education focuses on the American South, and considers how historical events and perspectives experienced by the region have shaped states’ education systems today. Undeniably shaped by the 18thand early 19th-century slave-based agrarian economy and generally more conservative perspective, the governmental and educational systems of Southern states remain unique in comparison to other states. Although each state in what may be considered the South has its own specific educational policy context, several broad themes and trends unite the region. To begin with, relatively low union organization or activism on behalf of teachers exists, relative to other states. In part due to the agrarian economy of the past and slow movement toward urbanization, school districts tend to be larger and more comprehensive, consisting of urban, rural, and suburban geographies. Southern states have faced challenges of poverty spanning all three of the geographies just referenced. Finally, the South’s racial diversity and history contributed to a legacy of race relations that places a particular policy emphasis on academic achievement gaps between Black and White students, whereas a growing influx of immigrant students serves to disrupt this strong focus on Black/White considerations. Educators and policymakers in the South face challenges of resource adequacy, low levels of academic achievement relative to the rest of the nation, and persistent racial and economic achievement gaps. However, Southern states have tended to be more responsive than average to calls for systemic approaches to educational reform such as those outlined by Smith and O’Day (1991). The broad scope of state leaders to drive educational reform, combined with relatively