America\u27s Choice Comprehensive School Reform Design: First-Year Implementation Evaluation Summary

In the fall of 1998, the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) contracted with the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) to conduct the evaluation of the America’s Choice School Design. This is a summary of CPRE’s first report of a three-year evaluation of the design. The evaluation of America’s Choice seeks to answer four basic questions: Are schools successfully implementing the America’s Choice program design? What environmental characteristics are facilitating or impeding implementation? How effective is America Choice’s implementation strategy? And what are the impacts of the program on teachers and students? As America’s Choice is still in the early stages of implementation, most evaluation efforts are directed toward the questions about the implementation of the program and the conditions surrounding its implementation. In subsequent years, CPRE increasingly will emphasize its evaluation of the impacts of the program on students. This report describes the first year of the implementation of America’s Choice. Following this introduction, section two provides a description of America’s Choice and the theory behind the America’s Choice school design. Section two concludes with a set of reasonable expectations for the progress of America’s Choice in its first year. Section three describes CPRE’s findings concerning the implementation of America’s Choice, including many of the specific design components. Section four analyzes the role of the school district in the implementation of America’s Choice. The report concludes with a summary of the findings of the first year’s evaluation

Understanding New Jersey's school funding formula: The role of adjustment aid

The objective of this policy brief is to explain the purpose of adjustment aid in New Jersey’s school funding formula and to correct several misconceptions about the level of aid and how it is distributed. The main conclusions, presented in detail below, include: 1) The amount of adjustment aid in the funding formula is currently overstated in the “informational” state aid notices published by the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE). 2) Correcting the base year from which adjustment aid is calculated would lower the total adjustment aid required from $754 million to$579 million. 3) Just over a third of total adjustment aid is allocated to the former Abbott districts. 4) While about half of adjustment aid is allocated to above adequacy districts and contributes to spending above the levels required by the funding formula, the other half is allocated to below adequacy districts and helps fund schools in communities that are unable to raise their local share of the adequacy budget

America's Choice Comprehensive School Reform Design: First-Year Implementation Evaluation Summary

In the fall of 1998, the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) contracted with the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) to conduct the evaluation of the America's Choice School Design. This is a summary of CPRE's first report of a three-year evaluation of the design. The evaluation of America's Choice seeks to answer four basic questions: Are schools successfully implementing the America's Choice program design? What environmental characteristics are facilitating or impeding implementation? How effective is America Choice's implementation strategy? And what are the impacts of the program on teachers and students? As America's Choice is still in the early stages of implementation, most evaluation efforts are directed toward the questions about the implementation of the program and the conditions surrounding its implementation. In subsequent years, CPRE increasingly will emphasize its evaluation of the impacts of the program on students. This report describes the first year of the implementation of America's Choice. Following this introduction, section two provides a description of America's Choice and the theory behind the America's Choice school design. Section two concludes with a set of reasonable expectations for the progress of America's Choice in its first year. Section three describes CPRE's findings concerning the implementation of America's Choice, including many of the specific design components. Section four analyzes the role of the school district in the implementation of America's Choice. The report concludes with a summary of the findings of the first year's evaluation

Is school funding fair? America’s most fiscally disadvantaged school districts, second edition

“Is School Funding Fair? A National Report Card” analyzes the condition of state school finance systems with a focus on the fair distribution of resources to the neediest students. "Is school funding fair? America’s most fiscally disadvantaged school districts" identifies the most fiscally disadvantaged school districts in the country — those with higher than average student needs in their labor-market location and lower than average resources when state and local revenues are combine

Is school funding fair? A national report card, sixth edition

The National Report Card (NRC) evaluates and compares the extent to which state finance systems ensure equality of educational opportunity for all children, regardless of background, family income, place of residence, or school location. It is designed to provide policymakers, educators, business leaders, parents, and the public at large with information to better understand the fairness of existing state school finance systems and how resources are allocated so problems can be identified and solutions developed