"How you spend your resources really does speak to the ethics, morals, and values about what is important. I use these ideas each day to help schools leverage their resources in strategic and creative ways to meet students′ needs." —Mary Nash, Assistant Superintendent Boston Public Schools, MA "A powerful new lens for looking at school resources by fundamentally changing the question from ′How much money do schools need to succeed?′ to ′How well are resources being used to ensure student success?′" —Richard Murnane, Economist and Professor Harvard Graduate School of Education Strategically reorganize school resources to support instructional and performance priorities! How can schools best use the resources they already have? That question is at the heart of this inspiring book for school and district administrators challenged with increasing student performance without additional funding. Exploring the link between purposeful resource allocation and academic achievement, Karen Hawley Miles and Stephen Frank demonstrate how educational leaders can develop successful and strategic schools by assessing how well they use all available resources—people, time, and money—and by creating effective alternatives to meet goals. The authors use their extensive research with urban schools and districts to present case studies of schools that successfully reorganized resources to implement the "Big 3 Guiding Resource Strategies": improving teaching quality, creating individual attention, and maximizing academic time. The Strategic School offers planning guides, checklists, worksheets, and strategies aligned with ISLLC standards to help leaders: Assess current resource use in new ways that go beyond the typical budget review Organize resources more creatively and flexibly Craft a master schedule that works Connect resource allocation to student and school performance

The Handbooks in Economics series continues to provide the various branches of economics with handbooks which are definitive reference sources, suitable for use by professional researchers, advanced graduate students, or by those seeking a teaching supplement. With contributions from leading researchers, each Handbook presents an accurate, self-contained survey of the current state of the topic under examination. These surveys summarize the most recent discussions in journals, and elucidate new developments. Although original material is also included, the main aim of this series is the provision of comprehensive and accessible surveys*Every volume contains contributions from leading researchers*Each Handbook presents an accurate, self-contained survey of a particular topic *The series provides comprehensive and accessible surveys

Resource allocation decisions made by school boards, principals, and teachers are critical for they determine the adequacy and equity of resources actually made available for specific schools, educational programs and individual students. The most important resources are often concealed by aggregate state or district measures such as dollars per student. For these decisions, the most important resources are elements such as basic and supplemental staffing levels, staff time, funding amounts for textbooks and supplies, selection of new equipment (particularly technology), and support for new or renovated facilities. The authors review current practices at each important decision-making level in school districts, from the school board to the classroom. At each juncture, the findings are interpreted to reveal both the causes of the practices and their implications for improving school effectiveness. This book provides new research in helping to inform and improve resource allocation practices in schools. The general conclusion is that improvement in the resource allocation practices in education requires a shift in focus to results instead of inputs, a strong emphasis on student learning as the primary focus of decisions, and systematic evaluation of results.

. . . is a voluminous and timely collection of 18 essays that addresses a number of core issues on the economics of education. . . An exhaustive survey of the literature on the role of universities as multi-product firms at various levels and disciplines identifies the nature of the economies of scope and scale. This enriches the volume further. Economic Analysis & Policy . . . the endeavour of bringing together very knowledgeable contributors, including some of the leading contributors to the literature in the UK and beyond, to write a handbook on the economics of education is highly appreciated. The Handbook contains 18 substantive chapters, encapsulated by a brief introduction and an extensive and a very useful index. . . the Handbook should be praised as a useful overview of the field of economics of education as it stands today. Ludger Wößmann, Economic Issues This major Handbook comprehensively surveys the rapidly growing field of the economics of education. It is unique in that it comprises original contributions on an exceptional range of topics from a review of human capital, signalling and screening models, to consideration of issues such as educational externalities and economic growth, funding models, determinants of educational success, the educational production function, educational standards and efficiency measurement. Labour market issues such as the market for teachers and the transition of students from school to work are also explored. The International Handbook on the Economics of Education will be warmly welcomed by academic economists, educational researchers and practitioners in educational management as well as policymakers. Comprising specially commissioned articles, the Handbook will become indispensable reference for this ever topical field of study.

Esteemed historians of education David Tyack, Carl Kaestle, Diane Ravitch, James Anderson, and Larry Cuban journey through history and across the nation to recapture the idealism of our education pioneers, Thomas Jefferson and Horace Mann. We learn how, in the first quarter of the twentieth century, massive immigration, child labor laws, and the explosive growth of cities fueled school attendance and transformed public education, and how in the 1950s public schools became a major battleground in the fight for equality for minorities and women. The debate rages on: Do today's reforms challenge our forebears' notion of a common school for all Americans? Or are they our only recourse today? This lavishly illustrated companion book to the acclaimed PBS documentary, School, is essential reading for anyone who cares about public education.

Equity Audits and School Resource Allocation explores how to apply Critical Resource Theory (CReT) to conduct school equity audits, ultimately preparing educational leaders to find equity disparities, engage in more equitable resource allocation in their schools, and improve equal educational opportunity for every student. With case study scenarios woven throughout the book, the authors explore key equity factors, including per-pupil expenditures, poverty, teacher and principal quality, program equity, and achievement equity. They also walk through the process of implementing the 5-step CReT equity audit within a school district or school at any level. Owings and Kaplan also describe the communication and interpersonal factors that equity advocates will need to leverage to gain community support for equity process, considering the data, and rethinking their policies and practices. In today’s education context, the problems of equitably funding public schools and allocating learning resources to generate more equal opportunities and higher outcomes for traditionally underserved children are particularly relevant. This important book is designed for course use in leadership preparation programs, for practicing principals and superintendents, and for educational leadership scholars.