Smart School Budgeting: Resources for Districts

In an era of aggressive public education reform, school districts face increasing pressure to produce higher levels of student performance with increasingly limited resources. The economic downturn has forced many districts to tighten their belts, and careful thought must be given to how each and every dollar is spent. Optimally, district leaders should work with stakeholders in their communities to set goals, analyze current spending, provide transparency in their budgeting, and consider cost-saving and reallocation strategies. The Rennie Center has created a toolkit, Smart School Budgeting: Resources for Districts, aiming to assist district leaders in decision-making about school budgeting. Smart School Budgeting is intended to push school leaders to take a more deliberative approach to school budgeting. The resources presented in the toolkit act as a starting point for districts examining their own budgeting processes. The document is designed as a user-friendly summary of existing literature and tools on school finance, budgeting, and resource allocation that directs district leaders and school business officials to practical and useful information to shape resource decisions. Each section includes an overview of a critical topic in school budgeting, summaries of useful documents and resources, relevant case studies (if available), and a resource list with hyperlinked documents for easy access. The toolkit is organized around the following topics: introduction and context for school budget analysis; setting goals; types of budgets; strategies for analyzing spending; tools for budget analysis; and cost-saving strategies.This toolkit was released at a public event on October 3, 2012

A learning tool to develop sustainable projects

This paper presents a tool developed to help engineers to design and develop sustainable projects. The tool has been designed to introduce and evaluate the sustainability of engineering projects in general, but here we show its application to assess the final project of an engineering degree. This tool is a guide for students to introduce and estimate the sustainability of their projects, but it also helps teachers to assess them. The tool is based on the Socratic Methodology and consists of a matrix where each cell contains several questions that students must consider during the project development and which they must answer in their project report. A positive or negative mark is assigned to every cell, and the sum of all marks states the project sustainability. However, the result is not as simplistic as a final number, but a descriptive sustainability analysis where questions are answered and every mark justified. A pilot test with some students has obtained good results, but the first Final Degree Project using this methodology will be read in July 2016.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Eye on Collaborative Creativity : Insights From Multiple-Person Mobile Gaze Tracking in the Context of Collaborative Design

Early Career WorkshopNon peer reviewe

Science Leadership: Impact of the New Science Coordinators Academy

This article discusses the impact of the New Science Coordinators Academy (NSCA) on two cohorts of participants. The NSCA is one of four components of the Virginia Initiative for Science Teaching and Achievement (VISTA), a United States Department of Education (USED) science education reform grant. The NSCA is designed to support new school district science coordinators (with less than five years of experience) and to continue building the state science education infrastructure. Research in education leadership traditionally focuses on teacher leaders, principals, and district office personnel. Interestingly, research on district office personnel rarely distinguishes between the different roles of district personnel. This article seeks to inform the field by sharing the impact of an academy designed for new science coordinators on their learning, and to begin to understand their role and impact in their district. The five-day Academy engaged participants in a variety of experiences designed to facilitate the following: 1) build leadership skills; 2) build a common understanding and vision for hands-on science, inquiry, problem-based learning, and nature of science in the science classroom; 3) investigate data to improve student learning goals; 4) and, develop a science strategic plan. The data indicate that the NSCA was successful at meeting its goals to support the participants and to build a common language among these new coordinators. Initial data also support the variety of responsibilities of these participants and the positive impact of the Academy on their district work