Lawrence O. Picus

Understanding the Relationship Between Student Achievement and the Quality of Educational Facilities: Evidence From Wyoming

A growing issue in school finance adequacy relates to the condition of school facilities and the role that the condition of those facilities plays in student learning. Using the results of standardized test scores from Wyoming students and a detailed assessment of every school building in the state of Wyoming, it can be concluded that there is essentially no relationship between the quality of school facilities and student performance when other factors known to impact student performance are accounted for. This does not suggest investments in school facilities are not important-all children are entitled to attend school in safe, clean, and appropriate educational environments. However, policymakers should be aware that investments in facilities by themselves are unlikely to improve student learning.

Reinventing School Finance: Falling Forward

States and school districts are facing unprecedented financial pressure due to the continued poor performance of the United Statess economy. Dramatic shortfalls in funding due to reduced tax collections were held off for 2 years thanks to federal stimulus funds, but with these revenues already consumed and little likelihood of more in the near future, school districts are faced with some of the largest funding shortfalls they have ever experienced. This article offers a number of suggestions for ways schools and school districts can reduce spending while maintaining a strong emphasis on improved student performance. These ideas include focusing more resources on core subjects, making trade-offs that include the potential of larger classes in exchange for professional development in the form of instructional coaches, and establishing research-based priorities for the use of existing resources.

A 50-State Strategy to Achieve School Finance Adequacy.

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 of each individual state. Using two different prices, (a) the national average teacher salaries adjusted by a comparable wage index and (b) individual state teacher salaries, the authors estimate per pupil costs of adequacy. Results suggest that in 30 states additional resources are needed to reach the funding level for the evidence-based model. The findings do not make adjustments for diseconomies resulting from large numbers of small schools or districts or other state preferences for educational services that could lead to individual state variations from the authors’ findings.

The Local Impact of School Finance Reform in Four Texas School Districts

This article describes how four Texas school districts responded to changed fiscal conditions following the implementation of reforms designed to bring greater equity to Texas school finance. Case studies in two poor districts revealed that although there were substantial increases in funding available, very little of this new money was spent on improvements to the core curriculum. In the two wealthy districts, one struggled to maintain current spending levels, with very few changes in priorities, while the other was able to pass a substantial property tax increase for school improvement. However, a substantial portion of the increased funds was used to replace lost state money.

Using Available Evidence to Estimate the Cost of Educational Adequacy.

This article seeks to move the adequacy issue forward by demonstrating that under a certain set of assumptions, it is possible to provide a set of programmatic offerings that corresponds well with what we consider to be an emerging, research-based consensus about what constitutes best practices. We do this by showing what could be purchased with the national average expenditure per pupil if it were to be applied to one adequacy approach, the evidence-based approach, and how these resources have been linked to increases in student performance.

Oregon's Quality Education Model: Linking Adequacy and Outcomes

This article describes the Oregon Quality Education model (OQEM), an adequacy funding model that attempts to connect the resources provided to schools with the student-learning outcomes that should result. The OQEM employs “prototype schools” to delineate the elements and costs of a quality education. Local school districts retain the ability to develop their own instructional programs but must be as effective as the prototype schools. The OQEM specifies quality indicators that ascertain how effectively the prototype schools are assumed to be functioning. Outcome measures set by the OQEM use performance on state assessments to establish the learning that results from the prototype schools. The OQEM connects several key components of state education policy: funding, school improvement, system performance, and accountability. The model illustrates how state and local control can be balanced within a framework that defines state responsibility to fund education adequately and local responsibility to deliver quality programs accordingly.

School Finance Adequacy: Implications for School Principals.

In the standards-based education reforms of today, an important question is how much it will cost for all—or almost all—students to reach state-deter mined proficiency levels ? School finance adequacy seeks to determine that cost. Four models have been developed to estimate the costs of adequacy. Two of them—the professional judgment and the evidence-based models—are designed to specifically link educational strategies that will enable students to meet performance standards with an estimate of the costs of those strate gies. Principals will face growing pressure to implement the models as described by these studies in the future, suggesting they participate in the development of adequacy analyses in their states and school districts.

Incentive Funding Programs and School District Response: California and Senate Bill 813

In 1983, the California legislature enacted a series of incentive programs intended, in part, to encourage local school districts to devote more resources toward instructional expenditures. Analysis of district response to those incentives shows they were more effective in directing spending toward direct instruction than were general or categorical grants. However, it appears that as the incentive funds were rolled into general aid revenues, district spending patterns began to revert to the same distribution of expenditures observed prior to enactment of the incentives.

Current issues in public urban education

Abstract The 100 largest school districts in the United States educate 22.9 percent of our nations K‐12 students, yet they represent a mere 0.6 percent of the school districts serving these children. Often faced with older buildings and more children who are “at risk” for various reasons, urban districts face tremendous challenges in educating these youngsters. A number of educational reforms taking hold across the country offer promise for improvement. Implementation of site‐based management, which allows officials and teachers at the school level to focus on the specific needs of the children for whom they are responsible, offers promise for improving schools across the nation, particularly in urban areas. Other reforms are not as well tested but also show promise. Today there are a number of successful schools in urban areas, giving hope that, in the future, more children in our largest cities will attend schools that offer them greater opportunities.

Improving Teaching and Learning when Budgets Are Tight.

Spending limited dollars strategically is key in an era when funding is tight and expectations are high.