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Arguably the most strongly promoted approach by voucher advocates is a new form of government subsidy for private education, Education Savings Accounts (ESAs). Parents are provided a set sum which they can use for a variety of educational services including private school tuition and fees, online courses, extracurricular activities and private tutoring. Students enrolled in an ESA program are not allowed to concurrently attend a public school. This policy brief examines this emerging policy, considering similarities and differences with conventional voucher approaches, and examining the legal issues that the policy raises.

A recent report from EdChoice documents two staffing trends in public schools. After a temporary pause during the Great Recession, school staffing in the U.S. resumed an upward trajectory, and hiring tilted toward non-teaching personnel as compared to teachers. The report concludes that staffing growth outpaces enrollment growth and that there has been no corresponding increase in student performance. The report then recommends increasing teacher pay, at the expense of non-teaching staff, and school choice. While the data on staffing trends are obtained from NCES publications, the report's discussion of inputs, outcomes, and policy approaches is poorly grounded, leading to unsupported conclusions and policy prescriptions. It does not examine why there has been a staffing surge or whether it reflects a valid use of personnel. It evaluates the effectiveness of school staffing changes using "concurrent" achievement and finance measures, and it fails to acknowledge that educational outcomes have steadily improved, even though any benefits of staffing increases will be lagged and only show up gradually over time. The report presents no logical relationship between staffing trends and the solutions proposed. As a result, the report is irrelevant and is devoid of any important policy implications. This report provides a review of "Back to the Staffing Surge: The Great Teacher Salary Stagnation and the Decades-Long Employment Growth in American Public Schools." (A list of notes and references is included.) [For the EdChoice report, "Back to the Staffing Surge: The Great Teacher Salary Stagnation and the Decades-Long Employment Growth in American Public Schools," see ED583004.]

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) replaced the No Child Left Behind Act with great fanfare and enthusiasm. Granting more power to states and curbing what was seen as federal overreach was well received. However, the new legislation maintains a predominately test-based accountability system with a federal mandate for interventions in well over five thousand public schools every year. In this policy brief, the authors offer recommendations for state policymakers on both broad and focused ESSA implementation issues. (A list of notes and references is included.)

This is a section of "Research-Based Options for Education Policymaking," a multipart brief that takes up a number of important policy issues and identifies policies supported by research. Each section focuses on a different issue, and its recommendations to policymakers are based on the latest scholarship. A founding premise of charter schools is that deregulation will free teachers, principals, and schools to excel. Regulation or accountability in the conventional sense would be unnecessary, as competition and the market model would be the driving quality control force. Schools not doing a good job of educating children would either have to adapt or go out of business. Embracing this philosophy, 43 states and the District of Columbia have adopted some form of charter schools. Like many new enterprises that have a free hand in the beginning, cracks and fissures erupted. This brief discusses four broad domains of charter accountability: (1) academic performance; (2) equal opportunity and non-discrimination; (3) financial solvency and stability; and (4) safety. The laws and/or regulations for charter schools vary widely in content and focus. These need to be periodically updated; otherwise state policymakers will not have fulfilled their obligation to protect the safety, welfare, and educational entitlements of children. This brief provides a list of recommended policies focused on the four domains of charter accountability. A list of notes and references is included.

The Gates Foundation's Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project was a multi-year study of thousands of teachers in six school districts that concluded in January 2013. This review addresses two of the final MET research papers. One paper uses random assignment to test for bias in teachers' value-added scores. The experimental protocol was compromised, however, when many students did not remain with the teachers to whom researchers had assigned them; other students and teachers did not participate at all. This prevents conclusive answers to the questions of interest. The second paper examines how best to combine value-added scores, classroom observations, and student surveys in teacher evaluations. The data do not support the MET project's premise that all three primarily reflect a single general teaching factor, nor do the data support the project's conclusion that the three should be given roughly equal weight. Rather, each measure captures a distinct component of teaching. Evaluating teachers requires judgments about which components are the most important, judgments that are not much informed by the MET's masses of data. While the MET project has brought unprecedented vigor to teacher evaluation research, its results do not settle disagreements about what makes an effective teacher and offer little guidance about how to design real-world teacher evaluation systems. Notes and references are included.

This report offers recommendations for building community support for federal school turnaround approaches, particularly in communities that oppose these approaches. Parents, the report concludes, want improvement but cherish their local schools and distrust the turnaround options mandated from above by higher levels of government. Thus, community members rise up in anger when their school faces closure, conversion to a charter school, breaking-up, or forced replacement of staff. Arguing that this resistance is due in large part to parents not understanding how bad their schools are, the report proposes that by engaging the public constructively and using eight communication strategies, parents will react more positively towards imposed turnaround approaches. The report does not address the body of research that shows school turnarounds to be generally unsuccessful. Further, even though parents in the study raise concerns that their schools are under-resourced and face significant social problems, the report fails to address these issues. By diverting attention from the real problems correctly identified by the parents and by possibly disrupting ongoing reforms, this communication strategy holds little promise for actually improving education and could prove harmful. (Contains 6 notes.) [For the document reviewed, "What's Trust Got to Do with It? A Communications and Engagement Guide for School Leaders Tackling the Problem of Persistently Failing Schools," see ED529276.]

President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan have called for national "common core" curriculum standards. Some have argued that national standards are essential for reform, as they provide coherence, rigor, logic and organization. Others have contended they will narrow the curriculum, seize control from local districts and states, and distort the purposes of education. The Cato Institute's Neal McCluskey argues that national standards will have only limited, if any, effect. The report contends there is only a weak theoretical case in favor of national standards and that the structure of schooling might be the real problem. It concludes that market models are the best way to reform education. While providing a useful summary and critique of the research on national standards, the non-sequitur in the report (standards do not work; therefore the free market will) presents readers with a conclusion not supported by the report's evidence. Thus, the fundamental policy conclusions are not sustained. (Contains 5 notes.) [This paper reviews the following report: "Behind the Curtain: Assessing the Case for National Curriculum Standards. Policy Analysis. No. 661" (ED520384).]

The primary purpose of this study is to examine how Education Management Organizations (EMOs) appear to affect the segregation or integration of schools by race, economic class, special education status, and language. This is accomplished through examining differences in enrollment patterns between schools operated by EMOs and schools run by their neighboring local districts. Five primary findings were reached: (1) Charter schools operated by EMOs tend to be strongly racial segregative for both minority and majority students as compared with the composition of the sending district; (2) For economically challenged students, EMO-operated charter schools more strongly segregate students than do their respective local districts. (3) EMO-operated schools consistently enrolled a lower proportion of special education children than their home district; (4) English Language Learners (ELL) were also consistently underrepresented in charter schools in every comparison; and (5) When examined for the years 2001 to 2007, the composition of the charter schools trended closer to the public school district for each of the four demographic groups examined. However, this phenomenon was an artifact of balancing extremes. For both for-profit and nonprofit EMOs, the segregation patterns of 2000-2001 were virtually identical to those in 2006-2007. Appendices include: (1) Findings by EMO; (2) Tables with Descriptive Statistics for Key Measures and the Differential Scores; and (3) Longitudinal Trends in EMO-Operated Schools. (Contains 6 tables, 15 figures and 60 endnotes.)

Across the nation, the final stage of school restructuring is being reached by an inexorably increasing number of schools. Under the No Child Left Behind law, if a school does not make its adequate yearly progress targets after four previous years of being "in need of improvement," it must implement a fundamental restructuring plan. The restructuring options are as follows: (1) turn the school operations over to the state, (2) turn the operations over to a private company, (3) reopen as a charter school, or (4) reconstitute the school by replacing some or all of the teachers, staff and administrators. There is a fifth alternative of applying "any other" fundamental school restructuring, an option now receiving new attention. It is essential that we know how these restructuring options work in practice -- particularly as the law is now due for reauthorization. This brief reviews the independent research on the ultimate sanctions and provides recommendations designed to enhance school improvement. [Funding for this brief was provided by the Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice.]

This study finds that nearly every school in the Great Lakes states is threatened to fail the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements mandated by the federal "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) Act. NCLB holds schools and districts accountable for student achievement on state standardized tests and schools that do not make AYP face sanctions. A school or district can avoid sanctions one of two ways: produce test scores that meet AYP annual objectives set by the state, or by making sufficient improvement over the previous year's test scores to take advantage of "Safe Harbor" status. The goals of NCLB are deceptively simple: All schools and districts receiving funds for socially and economically deprived children (Title I) must bring all students up to state standards by 2014. The implementation is considerably more complex. The most critical and controversial aspects of NCLB are school accountability policies and AYP requirements. This study examines the implementation of those policies in the Great Lakes states, and projects the percentage of schools that will make or fail to make AYP, and those that could be Safe Harbor eligible: (1) Illinois is projected, under the best case scenario, to have more than 96 percent of schools fail AYP with 29 percent of schools potentially Safe Harbor eligible in 2014; (2) Indiana is projected to have 80 to 85 percent of schools eventually fail AYP in 2014, according to the most realistic scenarios; (3) Michigan is projected to have nearly 50 percent of schools fail to make AYP in 2014, but remain Safe Harbor eligible according to the most forgiving scenario. Still, nearly all of these schools could fail to make AYP outright under the remaining scenarios; (4) Minnesota is projected to have 81 percent of its schools failing AYP in 2014 but 27 percent of schools could be Safe Harbor eligible. Schools are projected to fail at a consistent rate as the AYP requirements increase annually; (5) Ohio is projected to have a relatively high percentage of schools make AYP approximately 85 percent) until 2011, at which point the percentage of schools making AYP drops dramatically to a low point of 12 percent of schools making AYP; and (6) Wisconsin is projected to experience the biggest impact in the later years (2011-2014) when 84 percent schools are projected to fail AYP, but 34 percent of schools could be Safe Harbor eligible. In general, approximately 85 percent of schools in the Great Lakes states are projected to fail AYP in 2014 under the most optimistic scenarios. Under more realistic circumstances, the overall failure rate is projected to be at or above 95 percent. In summation, the authors question the sustainability of the AYP requirements. Furthermore, they caution that schools are not capable of closing the achievement gap without resolving the social problems that underlie this gap. They point out that adequate funding for remediation and social infrastructure is essential to meeting the stated goals of NCLB. The projections for the Great Lakes states are applicable to the nation as a whole and are a warning about the sustainability of NCLB, as the AYP requirements are currently constructed. The entire country faces tremendous failure rates, even under a conservative estimate with several forgiving assumptions. (Contains 1 table, 13 figures and 84 notes and references.) [For "The Impact of the Adequate Yearly Progress Requirement of the Federal 'No Child Left Behind' Act on Schools in the Great Lakes Region. Executive Summary," see ED531288.]

This commentary offers an analysis of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). The paper purports that the most serious problems in the U.S. education system stem from a lack of resources, particularly at the secondary level. This lack of resources leads to a large disparity in student academic achievement within the United States. International test data show that the United States has the greatest inequities between the highest and lowest scoring students of any nation. The paper goes on to discuss the costs of implementing NCLB, focusing on actual needs versus actual costs and highlighting cost studies from 10 states. The paper continues with a discussion of the promised benefits of NCLB, stating that if the educational system is not adequately funded, there is little hope of actual benefit. It asserts that NCLB will likely increase dropouts, narrow the curriculum, and increasingly label schools as failing even as National Assessment scores and graduation rates reach all-time highs. The analysis concludes with a list of five requirements for the United States to attain the goal of educating all children. (Contains 43 endnotes, most of which are references.) (WFA)

A meeting of education finance scholars discussed finance issues relevant to rural schools and communities. This paper summarizes major themes that emerged during the meeting. Notions of efficiency and economies of scale have contributed to widespread consolidation of rural schools and school districts. The value of community is not easily measured and has often been excluded from consolidation decisions. In addition, actual savings from consolidation are often smaller than predicted. Other themes included teacher salaries and other difficulties in recruiting rural teachers; negative impacts of No Child Left Behind, vouchers, and charter schools on rural school finance; impacts of poverty and lack of services in isolated areas; inability of rural districts to absorb special education costs; handling of sparsity factors, transportation costs, and declining enrollments in state aid formulas; cost of living adjustments; obsolete and dilapidated rural facilities; expansion of technology use in rural schools; and the continuing brain drain from rural areas. No Child Left Behind insists that all children learn to the same level without addressing rural inequalities in out-of-school conditions that affect opportunity to learn. Such inequalities could become categorical weights in state funding formulas, but such formulas generally are politically driven and inadequate to rural needs. Equity is inseparable from adequacy. Professional judgement approaches that separate remote and rural districts into their own unique "market basket" hold the best promise for determining adequacy. (SV)

Vermont's Act 60 is arguably the most equitable school funding system in the nation. However, it is also one of the most controversial. The disputes are primarily focused on the recapture provision that sends excess revenues from property-rich towns to the state's education trust fund. After a 4-year implementation period, the system is now in its second year of full operation. This evaluation addresses the equity effects and the associated educational achievement trends since this reform was implemented. It also discusses the adequacy issues being brought to the forefront as a result of the February 1997 Supreme Court decision ("Brigham versus the State of Vermont") and the reforms. The major findings include equality of tax rates, equality of tax burden, variation in tax rate and spending between towns, and general improvement in state test scores. While controversies remain as well as strong efforts to repeal the recapture portion of the state funding system, Vermont's Act 60 reforms have provided tax-rate and tax-burden equity. Education spending levels have become more equitable and educational test scores have improved across the board with the biggest gains being for the traditionally lowest scoring towns. (Contains 18 endnotes and 5 tables.) (RT)

Following a national trend, school board members, administrators, and teachers in Brandon, Vermont, have developed a model for a standards-based evaluation and compensation system for teachers that does not link test scores to teacher pay. The model was developed over a period of 4 years, a necessary amount of time to establish guiding principles, affirm commitment from administrators and teachers, and translate a plan into acceptable contract language. Under the new standards-based environment, teachers present a professional portfolio, which mirrors the state's relicensing criteria, to a "moveover" committee made up of board members, administrators, and peers. The portfolio includes evaluations, evidence of meeting state standards, and a professional growth plan. All new teachers are compensated through the new system; senior teachers can choose the new system or the traditional salary system based on longevity and graduate credits. The new compensation system is managed by the personnel officer in each school. After the first year in place, the portfolio presentation was refined because teachers needed guidance in writing reflective narratives. After 2 years, early implementation, though not seamless, has been smooth because of the consistency of the moveover committees and the mature leadership of school board members, administrators, and teachers. (WFA)

In the 1997-98 school year, the town school boards of rural Rutland County, Vermont, established a regional school choice collaborative. Key program features were limits on the number of choice students from each school; no exchange of money between school boards; a lottery to determine admission at schools with excess applicants; parent/student responsibility for student transportation; and provisions related to special education, athletics, and disciplinary issues. In view of current efforts in the Vermont legislature toward expanding school choice, this paper reports on the first 4 years of the Rutland program. Surveys were completed by 60 of the 63 school-choice students, who comprised about 2 percent of eligible students. About three quarters of respondents transferred from smaller to larger schools, and two thirds moved toward a school in the region's center. No competitive improvement effects were found for either the schools or the students in the program. The relationship between school quality (test scores) and popularity of choice was weak. Student reasons for transferring were about evenly distributed among attraction to new school, dislike of old school, and social factors. Almost all students were satisfied with the change, but their average grades (low B or high C) were unchanged. Students tended to choose schools in areas of higher income. Other than satisfaction, the program produced no benefits and, if the money followed the child, would threaten the existence of several small high schools. (Contains 16 endnotes and the student questionnaire.) (SV)

Vermont's Act 60 received national attention not only because of the controversy surrounding the sharing pool (or recapture provision) but also because of its "potential for being the most equitable system in the country." For fiscal years 1998 to 2001, tax rates have become more equitable, and a direct relationship has appeared between spending level and tax rate at the town level. Tax burdens have also become more equitable on a town-to-town and individual basis. Education spending equity is occurring, though at a relatively slower pace than tax equity. Educational achievement equity is emerging when state test data are used as a measure. Issues are discussed include whether or not the sharing pool should be maintained and whether the recapture provision should be modified. Other issues are monetary gifts as a means of obtaining exemption from recapture, small schools, whether money should move with the child, and the need to reduce bureaucratic complexity. An important question is whether the legislature will weaken the provisions of the act and cause greater inequities or improve the deficiencies in the formula so that it can work more effectively. The paper ends with six charts illustrating financial trends for fiscal years 1998 to 2001. (Contains 11 endnotes and 9 tables and charts.) (RT)

It is possible to tie teacher compensation to professional growth, without reference to standardized test scores. Tying pay to students' achievement scores does not account for the different levels of students, and teacher testing does not separate good teachers from bad. In Rutland Northeast, Vermont, each school has its own locally elected school board with complete budget and personnel authority. The cultural climate of Vermont discourages the confrontational and formalized processes often seen in other settings. However, putting the details into contract language acceptable to all took 4 years and required leadership maturity, tenacity, and continuity. The salary matrix remained in a traditional format with salary steps granted for years of service and graduate credits or degrees. What has changed is the new option of presenting an annual plan for professional growth and a portfolio, with evaluations and observations, for approval to move from column to column in the salary schedule. Indications of professional growth can include enrichment, workshops, national certification, and curriculum improvement. Using this method is a choice, but one cannot afterward change back to the old system. In the first year of implementation, about 6 percent of teachers submitted portfolios to qualify under the new system. In successful programs, salary advancement is not limited to the few, professional development is broadly defined, and curricular and instructional leadership is rewarded. Also, sufficient development and implementation is needed, perhaps 4 or 5 years. The maturity and capability of teachers, principals, and boards is essential. A plan should fit the context, history, and traditions of the schools. (AUTHOR/RKJ)

A unanimous 1997 state Supreme Court decision declaring Vermont's educational funding system unconstitutional prompted the legislature to pass Act 60 establishing state block grants and a guaranteed tax-yield system. Act 60 is working to provide equity in tax burdens and in tax rates. A variety of transitional features have helped to buffer wealthier towns from immediate, substantial local property-tax increases required to provide poorer towns with nearly-equivalent educational funding. The preliminary data indicate differences in spending are diminishing. A 1999 study by Lorna Jimerson indicates that historically poor schools are now making investments in maintenance and repairs. Act 60 requires a state-testing program, demands implementation of standards, provides technical assistance, and relies on direct state intervention when necessary. The Jimerson study found that districts were actively pursuing data-driven instructional improvement efforts. Earlier efforts to circumvent the capture of local tax revenue for funding equalization by raising private funds have been abandoned by all but a few schools, even as the legislature considers capping such gifts. Many districts object to funding caps on statewide support for special education, and relaxation of the caps, with additional monitoring, appears forthcoming. A projected 24 percent increase in health-insurance premiums may absorb a substantial portion of the equalization in funding. Recommendations for harmonizing property value assessments are currently being implemented. To address the vulnerability of small schools under per-student funding plans, the state provides an extra-student count multiplier for schools with fewer than 20 students per grade level. (TEJ)

This paper analyzes educational-finance reform in Vermont, which culminated in the passage of Act 60, a comprehensive education and tax reform measure, and the subsequent political furor the act engendered. It outlines the pre-reform background focusing on early civil-society organizations and the unique political landscape in Vermont. The article describes the political actors in the reform debate, such as the League of Women Voters and The Vermont Natural Resources Council, and the various legislative movements these groups championed. Details of failed reform efforts and the many facets of political maneuvering are provided. After elements of bipartisan support of various reform packages fell apart, deliberative discourse fell to the side and political regrouping began in earnest. Corrections through the courts were then sought by financial reformers, and a family sued the state to obtain financial equity among school districts. The resultant victory and the passage of the reform legislation, Act 60, and subsequent backlash are described. The reform process resulted in watershed transformations of political thought and culture in Vermont. Most importantly, the notion of a statewide responsibility for the education of all children was firmly established, supported by a statewide property tax; and the entrenched idea of an inequitable financial share in education was eradicated. (Contains 32 references and notes.) (RJM)

This paper analyzes current court cases that address the relationships among church, state, and education, describing how government and religion have been intertwined through most of history. With the rise of democracies, however, and the recognition of abuses perpetrated by religio-government alliances, the separation of church and state became popular. This separation has now come into question with the rise of the school privatization movement and competition among schools. The increasing influence of private schools, vouchers, and individual choice has led to extensive litigation. Key cases involve the protection of privately funded religious education, the practice of religion in public schools, and the denial of religious instruction in public schools. The paper then covers current court cases in Wisconsin, Ohio, Vermont, Maine, Arizona, and other states. Often obscured by fine legalistic distinctions, the fundamental question remains whether education is for the common good or for individual good. (Contains 29 references.) (RJM)

In Brigham et al. v. State of Vermont (1997), the Vermont Supreme Court struck down the previous state-funding system and directed the legislature to come up with a new system that would eliminate the inequities among the local school districts. An analysis of this decision and its consequences is offered here. The paper recaps the funding system prior to 1997 and describes how the previous finance system relied too heavily on local property taxes. As state aid dropped, per pupil expenditures varied widely, ranging from $2,961 to $7,726. This inequity prompted the Brigham case and led to a massive restructuring of educational finance in the form of the Equal Education Opportunities Act. The state drew on a statewide property tax, block grants, an income-sensitive property tax, new taxes, and other programs to fund these financial changes. With the funding in place, the legislature stipulated that local control was the best way to allocate the resources. This emphasis on local control was leavened by a state-curriculum framework, new assessment standards, standardized achievement tests, local goal-setting and action plans, and state standards and yearly progress reports. In the first year of the program, poor towns moderately increased their spending and richer towns cut their budgets, indicators of increasing financial equity. (Contains 15 references.) (RJM)

In 1974, Ronald Reagan called the United States a "shining city on a hill." A decade later, Mario Cuomo responded by speaking to us about another city that was not on a shining hill. His "Tale of Two Cities" speech, delivered at the 1984 Democratic National Convention, was not only moving but also haunting. In this other city he spoke about, children sleep in cars, live in dysfunctional families, and run on sensuous little streets where yellow smoke rises and reeks. In this other city, children are left behind. Yet the federal government requires schools alone to fix the effects of poverty and deprivation. Although such a task is well beyond schools' abilities (Rothstein 2004), the government requires that schools be labeled, if they fail to accomplish this task. Consequently, misperceptions that schools have squandered great and vast resources go unchallenged.

This report examines tax reform in Vermont. A unanimous state supreme court decision in 1997 ruled that the state's educational finance system was unconstitutional. In response to this ruling, the legislature passed a new statewide property-tax system with two tiers: a block grant of $5,010 per pupil and a guaranteed yield for spending above the block grant. The paper explores the recapture provision of the law, where the state fills in any financial shortage due to lack of local fiscal capacity or recaptures excess revenue and redistributes it through the education fund. It discusses the tax-burden cap of 2 percent of income and discusses how this cap applies to the block grant and statewide property tax. The report then turns to the controversy generated by the new spending plan and how citizens of the wealthier towns in the state have protested against the plan. Issues include litigation and the claim that the state did not have authority to tax locals. A statewide property tax as a possible solution to the controversy is being explored by some as a solution to many problems, such as those presented by communities that circumvent the recapture provision in the law. (RJM)

This paper first explains the unique role and functions of educational research at a state level and how it differs from institutional research and experimental and quasi-experimental research. The unique opportunities and constraints are also elaborated. State educational research has the advantage of central and comprehensive information as well as access to very extensive information. At the same time, the maintenance of this capability is extremely cumbersome. As state educational research must be able to respond to legislative, executive, and judicial requirements on extremely tight time-lines with relatively limited resources (for example, New Jersey's requirement for thorough and efficient (T & E) educational processes in the state's schools and districts), the system must maintain comprehensive information on all components of education while being able to collect other data and perform analyses without notice. The way in which this decision oriented system operates is explicated. (Author/RC)

In this report, revisions made by the New Jersey State Board of Education to its administrative code in order to implement provisions of the law providing an additional cost factor for the state compensatory education fund are described. Methods utilized by Federal and State governments for targeting resources are discussed. including socioeconomic funding, test-based funding, and a combination of these approaches. The combination approach used in New Jersey is detailed, along with the formula used for determination of estimated State compensatory education enrollment levels. (WI)