Expenditure and revenue problems in central-city school districts: Problems for the 1980s

This paper examines the combination of expenditure and revenue problems that contribute to the financial plight of central-city school districts. Both educational overburden and related overburden are examined, as are expenditure differentials between central-city and other types of districts. Big-city problems in the areas of tax capacity and effort are examined, and the effects of intergovernmental activity on the problems of city school districts are analyzed.     

The administrative control of high school principals by superintendents: the supervisory function

Conclusion Supervision, the most prevalent of the control mechanisms studied, was used in all of the schools to varying degrees. The frequency of superintendent visits fluctuated between a high of almost every day, in the case where the superintendent and the principal shared the same facility, to two times a year. Superintendents did visit schools without formal sessions with the principals. Several principals described their superintendents' visits as informal walk-throughs. District size did not influence the frequency of supervision by the superintendents. Schools in both large and small districts received roughly the same number of visits. Ninety-two percent of the principals received a medium or high number of visits. In some schools, particularly unit districts composed of grades kindergarten through 12, principals were evaluated by associate superintendents for secondary education. Central office personnel usually visited several times each month. Principals from large districts received fewer visits from central office staff than did principals from medium or small districts. Most principals perceived the visits by their superintendents and central office personnel as nonthreatening. When superintendents and central office administrators visited schools, they added to the system of control by collecting information about all aspects of schooling, including the climate. In general, principals perceived supervision as light, and felt that schools and principals were afforded considerable autonomy.Vanderbilt University     

The professional learning community as perceived by Israeli school superintendents, principals and teachers

A professional learning community (PLC) facilitates collaborative learning among colleagues at all levels in their common working environment. PLCs are particularly useful in schools, with teachers and principals meeting regularly to solve problems relating to teaching and learning. Being a means of improving student achievement, PLCs have received growing support from researchers and practitioners alike, yet some professionals are still exploring ways to develop learning networks focusing on teaching and learning issues. The purpose of this study was to examine Israeli teachers’, principals’, and superintendents’ perceptions of inhibiting and fostering factors of the PLC. In this qualitative, topic-oriented study, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 15 teachers from elementary, middle and secondary schools and their respective principals (15) and superintendents (15). Generating themes was inductive, grounded in the perspectives articulated by participants. The principals and the teachers indicated that overload, a lack of resources and top-down commands were PLC-inhibiting factors. The superintendents saw the principal’s leadership style as a main PLC-fostering factor. Understanding how these three echelons in the school system perceive the inhibiting and fostering factors of a PLC could indicate whether and how this collaborative learning process can be nurtured and sustained in schools.     

对沈阳市中学校长培训工作的几点思考

面对加入WTO和“新一轮课程改革”所带来的机遇和挑战，中学校长培训工作也必须有新的高度，才能更加具有科学性、针对性。更有成效地可持续发展，同时应尽快地找到中学校长继续教育的法制、体制、机制创新的着力点。     

非公有制经济发展面临的问题及对策建议

针对非公有制经济发展在理论、思想、法律、政策及管理等方面存在的问题,提出了进一步从宪法层次明确对整个国民财产实行统一保护,逐渐淡化“公”与“非公”的差别,强调“合法”与“非法”的不同;充分发挥非公有制经济在国民经济“非功能领域”中的作用;把发展非公有制经济、股份合作制经济和以个人持股为主的混合经济作为一项长期战略;着力优化非公制经济发展的软硬环境等对策建议。     

Dynamic and shared sense-making in large-scale curriculum reform in school districts

ABSTRACT

Shared sense-making is suggested to be key for curriculum reform. Shared sense-making entails constructing a collective understanding of the meaning for reform, its significance and its implications for schools, through dialogue and negotiation across the levels of the educational system. This study explored changes in hands-on strategies of shared sense-making, and ways of orchestrating curriculum reform work in the districts in Finland, following the introduction of new national curriculum policy. Longitudinal focus group interview data collected from curriculum coordinating groups during the reform work was utilised. The data were qualitatively content analysed. The two sets of shared sense-making strategies were identified in this study, including those strategies utilised by the groups in building their understanding of what the reform is all about, and those concerning the reform orchestration. The strategies employed evolved from simple to more complex, during the progression of curriculum work. Results also showed that the coordinating groups were well aware of their high autonomy and resulting responsibility in orchestrating the district-level curriculum work. However, the advance in shared sense-making strategies employed by the groups indicated that they were highly committed to constructing collective understanding about the reform, its significance and implications for schools through dialogue and negotiation with practitioners.     

浅析公共事业管理专业人才培养面临的问题与对策

经过十年的发展,我国的公共事业管理专业已初具规模,但在专业定位、课程设置、教材建设、师资力量等方面存在诸多问题,人才培养工作面临着极大困难。本文就此展开探讨,并提出若干解决思路,以期对高校改进公共事业管理专业人才培养工作有所裨益。     

冰壶运动在中国发展面临的问题探析

本文对部分冰壶运动大省市该项目的现状及影响其发展的因素进行了调查,并在此基础上提出了解决问题的路径,旨在促进我国竞技冰壶运动水平的提高。     

面向农民的职业教育:问题与对策

联合国教科文组织通过调查指出:“城市与乡村之间的差距,农业劳动与非农业劳动之间的差距越来越显著了……那些过着最低生活水平的,乃至生活在低于最低生活水平之中的农业劳动者,是属于条件最差的阶层。”在我国,目前仍有78%的人口在农村,相对于城市居民而言,农民无疑是一个处境不利人群。根据国家统计局的数字,中国城乡居民收     

Decision-oriented educational research in school districts: The role of dissemination processes

This article addresses the broad issue of how research information can be integrated into the policy and decision processes of educational systems. Our specific foci here is on one type of educational system -- school districts; on research designed to answer specific questions for that district; and, on one major element of the research process -- dissemination. This paper draws heavily upon our experiences in a large, urban American school district, where we work on the problem of how to improve the system's evaluation research capability. This work began in 1978 and continues today. This article has four major section. Background is provided on the nature of the collaboration with the school district. Then, basic strategies for conducting decision-oriented educational research that have emerged from the work are described briefly. This is followed by a discussion of the broad issue of research use. The final section is a detailed review of what we have learned about the relationship between dissemination and utilization.     

Does fiscal dependency matter? Aid elasticities for dependent and independent school districts

In New York state, there is a perception that the fiscally dependent status of the five large city school districts creates an impediment to the attainment of standards. I attempt to assess the impact of fiscal dependence on educational spending. The results suggest that levels of spending may be systematically lower in the fiscally dependent districts. There is, however, little evidence that the general purpose governments to which these districts are fiscally dependent “steal” a disproportionate share of state aid for education. I conclude by evaluating policies that could mitigate any detrimental impact that fiscal dependence might have. This evaluation leads me to the conclusion that, even if spending levels are inadequate, elimination of fiscal dependency may not be the best policy for addressing this problem. Instead, policy makers may want to consider governance changes that would better align responsibilities for allocating revenues to the schools and for governing the schools.     

当前工程质量监督工作面临的问题和解决思路

阐述了当前质量监督机构在质量监督过程中面临的主要问题,并分析其原因,探讨解决问题之思路.文章主要从相关体系建设、人才培养,质量控制等方面,加强各方责任主体的监督和引导,以构建规范的建筑市场,促进工程质量水平提升.     

教育营销：我国高校发展的问题与策略分析

伴随高校生源和人才需求的变化,教育竞争进而教育营销是高校生存的必然趋势。美国20世纪中叶开始针对招生困境开始成功运用商业性营销策略,其对高校运营产生的影响可以为我国的高等教育发展提供新思路。我国高校发展还没有深入营销思想,存在着营销观念淡化、缺乏系统的策略组合、营销目标市场不确定、网络信息传播手段不足、不能有效展示高校形象等问题。为此我国教育营销的主要策略应该是：以“以人为本”的制度加强有向心力的人才管理;以名师为媒介培养有亲和力的校园文化建设;以专业设置为核心营造有影响力的知识体系。     

Estimating scale economies and the optimal size of school districts: A flexible form approach

This paper investigates estimation methods to model the relationship between school district size, costs per student and the organisation of school districts. We show that the assumptions on the functional form strongly affect the estimated scale economies and offer two possible solutions to allow for more flexibility in the estimation method. First, we introduce a model by adding higher‐degree district size polynomials, allowing for multiple optima. Second, we develop a Fourier cost function, innovative in the literature on scale economies in education. We then compare both models to classical approaches in the literature. We illustrate how a minor change in the estimation method can alter policy conclusions significantly using Flemish school district data. In doing so, we find sizeable potential cost savings from the consolidation of school districts, especially at the lower tail of the district–size distribution. The organisational transition from small to large school districts is characterised by an interval between two optima. Beyond an apparent slowdown in cost savings in medium‐sized school districts, cost savings from school district consolidation increase again, up to the optimal size of around 6,500 students. Beyond this optimum, school districts incur diseconomies of scale. The commonly used quadratic form (‘U’‐shaped cost function) overestimates scale economies, and fails to identify the interval between both optima.     

The administrative control of principals in effective school districts: The supervision and evaluation functions

In this article we examine the nature of administrative control of school principals in 12 especially effective districts in California. We combined two lines of inquiry, knowledge regarding control in organizations and information from the teacher effects and school effectiveness research, to examine types and patterns of control mechanisms in these districts. Although the work reported herein is exploratory in nature, we see evidence that, contrary to the norm, supervision and evaluation of site level administrators were rational and meaningful processes in these effective districts. We report further that the supervision and evaluation functions appeared to form important linkage mechanisms between schools and districts. In addition, we note that supervision and evaluation provide a strong base for the development of other important linkage functions, especially goal setting. Finally, we report that the superintendents often appear to be the key figures in the supervision and evaluation functions in these effective school districts.