Wisconsins Special Education Funding Crunch: How State Underfunding Disproportionately Harms Students in High-Poverty Districts

This report examines how the lack of state support for special education impacts the funding available to educate children in Wisconsin school districts

More Funding Needed to Fix Tennessee Staffing Shortages

Tennessee's school funding formula does not adequately support the state's schools. This report analyzes the impact of underfunding on staffing levels and the resulting inequities created between high- and low-income school districts. The state's school formula funding, even when supplemented by local funding above the required local share, results in lower staffing levels in poorer districts in nearly every staffing category. Our findings show: (1) Nearly all districts raise more local funds than required. (2) Wealthier districts supplement with funds to reduce the average state student-teacher ratio of 23:1 ratio to 19-20 students per teacher, while the poorest districts average a student-teacher ratio of 24:1. (3) The English language learner to English as a second language teacher ratio is twice as high in poor districts than in wealthier districts. (4) Many districts have extremely limited access to student support staff such as social workers, counselors, and psychologists

Floridas Hidden Voucher Expansion: Over $1 Billion from Public Schools to fund Private Education

Analyzes impact of the adoption of a universal private education voucher program in Florida

Starting from the Bottom: First Steps to Improve School Funding in Arizona

The Arizona school funding system is in urgent need of reform, ranking at the bottom of the states for every measure of adequacy and equity. To remedy the current situation, two short-term actions can be implemented immediately: (1) increase school funding for all students, and (2) target additional funding to districts serving students in poverty. These short-term improvements can set the stage for an overhaul of the entire funding formula. For demonstration purposes, we calculate the cost and district impact of applying: a 10% increase to the base per pupil amount, and an opportunity weight of 0.5 to the current formula. These modest increases would boost Arizona's equalization formula allocations by $1.1 billion, from$4.86 to $5.96 billion, with$550 million targeted to increased funding for students in poverty through an opportunity weight, and $541 million from an increase to the base per pupil funding amount. Every district across the state would benefit from these reforms

How Long Must Illinois Students Wait for Fully Funded Schools?

Analyzes funding of Illinois' Evidence-Based Funding for Student Success Act (EBF), the state's school funding formula

Replacing Georgias Early Intervention and Remedial Programs with Funding for Low-Income Students

Georgia's school funding formula currently provides additional funds for academically struggling students through Early Intervention (EIP) and Remedial Education Programs (REP). These programs drastically underserve the number of students who are not proficient on state assessments, and participation is inconsistent across districts. Georgia could dramatically improve the allocation of resources to non-proficient students by replacing these programs with a poverty-based opportunity weight. A formula weight that increases the per pupil allocation for low-income students would more effectively deliver resources to academically struggling students, while also giving districts the flexibility to design academic and social interventions that address students' unique circumstances. We recommend that the Georgia Legislature 1) commission an independent cost study to determine the appropriate weight, 2) revise the funding formula to replace EIP and REP with the opportunity weight, and 3) develop an accountability framework to ensure that the funding generated is well spen

Invest in Georgia Teachers: The Need to Attract and Retain a High-Quality Workforce

Teachers in Georgia's public schools are unhappy about low pay and poor working conditions impacting their ability to provide a quality education to all students. A qualified teaching staff is an essential resource needed to give students a meaningful opportunity to succeed in school. Despite recent funding increases, Georgia districts are hiring new teachers without standard certification at higher rates, and more inexperienced teachers are in classrooms now than six years ago. Teachers are leaving the Georgia public schools altogether or switching to different districts in the state. Georgia's majority Black and low-income school districts are struggling much more than other districts to hire and retain experienced teachers with standard certifications. Lawmakers must make a stable workforce of qualified teachers across the state a top priority on their public education legislative agenda. Increased funding can be targeted to teacher salaries and better benefits, teacher hiring and development, and improved school climate and school resource allocation to attract and retain quality teachers

MassCode Liquid Arrays as a Tool for Multiplexed High-Throughput Genetic Profiling

Multiplexed detection assays that analyze a modest number of nucleic acid targets over large sample sets are emerging as the preferred testing approach in such applications as routine pathogen typing, outbreak monitoring, and diagnostics. However, very few DNA testing platforms have proven to offer a solution for mid-plexed analysis that is high-throughput, sensitive, and with a low cost per test. In this work, an enhanced genotyping method based on MassCode technology was devised and integrated as part of a high-throughput mid-plexing analytical system that facilitates robust qualitative differential detection of DNA targets. Samples are first analyzed using MassCode PCR (MC-PCR) performed with an array of primer sets encoded with unique mass tags. Lambda exonuclease and an array of MassCode probes are then contacted with MC-PCR products for further interrogation and target sequences are specifically identified. Primer and probe hybridizations occur in homogeneous solution, a clear advantage over micro- or nanoparticle suspension arrays. The two cognate tags coupled to resultant MassCode hybrids are detected in an automated process using a benchtop single quadrupole mass spectrometer. The prospective value of using MassCode probe arrays for multiplexed bioanalysis was demonstrated after developing a 14plex proof of concept assay designed to subtype a select panel of Salmonella enterica serogroups and serovars. This MassCode system is very flexible and test panels can be customized to include more, less, or different markers

Josephine Preston Peabody, Poet and Dramatist

Abstract not availabl

The Context of Changing Schools: A Life Course Perspective on Elementary School Mobility

122 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009.Also, a student who moves from a low-resourced school to a high-resourced school is predicted to improve on later math and reading tests, while an accompanying change in the home situation (increase in income and parent education, and/or an increase in student and parent ties with others in the school community), can improve these academic results even more. These changes do not appear to be common however, as students tend to move to new schools that are strikingly similar to their previous school.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD