An Unfinished Canvas: Arts Education in California: Taking Stock of Policies and Practices

Provides an overview of K-12 arts education, including course offerings; availability of teachers, facilities, and materials; standards alignment, assessment, and accountability practices; and equal access. Discusses barriers and recommendations

A Case Study of Professional Development Expenditures at a Restructured High School

This article is an analysis of professional development spending in a recently restructured urban high school. This study describes the school\u27s restructuring effort, the ways in which professional development in the school supports the effort, and the ways in which the school reallocated resources to create funds for professional development spending. We then apply the framework of professional development costs proposed by Odden, Archibald, Fermanich and Gallagher (forthcoming) to the professional development expenditures in the school. Information regarding professional development expenditures was obtained from budget and planning documents as well as interviews with school and district personnel. These data revealed that teachers in this school on average received $9,711 of professional development resources with 98% of the spending on teacher time and training or coaching

An Unfinished Canvas: Allocating Funding and Instructional Time for Elementary Arts Education

An Unfinished Canvas found that California's elementary schools face unique challenges inproviding all students with sequential, standards-based arts education. In particular, elementary principals identified inadequate funding and insufficient instructional time as significant barriers to the provision of arts education. For this study, we sought to further understand the impact of funding and time on elementary arts education. To do so, we examined the allocation of funding and instructional time in 10 schools across five states (Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, and California)

CPRE-UW Working Papers Series

focusing on student achievement. Many researchers and policy-makers have noted that to improve student learning, teachers will need to increase their skills. One strategy advanced for motivating teachers to acquire the capacity necessary to achieve the goals of standards-based reform is knowledge- and skills-based pay, which attaches financial rewards to teacher demonstration of specific competencies (Odden & Kelley, 2002). The effectiveness of a system obviously rests on implementation and also whether or not the teacher evaluation system rewards teacher knowledge and skills that contribute to student achievement. This paper reports on a study of the relationship between teacher evaluation scores in a school implementing knowledge- and skills-based pay, and classroom student achievement. The study estimates ‘classroom effects, ’ analyzes thei

Case Study of Professional Development Expenditures at a Restructured High School

This article is an analysis of professional development spending in a recently restructured urban high school. This study describes the school's restructuring effort, the ways in which professional development in the school supports the effort, and the ways in which the school reallocated resources to create funds for professional development spending. We then apply the framework of professional development costs proposed by Odden, Archibald, Fermanich and Gallagher (forthcoming) to the professional development expenditures in the school. Information regarding professional development expenditures was obtained from budget and planning documents as well as interviews with school and district personnel. These data revealed that teachers in this school on average received $9,711 of professional development resources with 98% of the spending on teacher time and training or coaching