Exploring weighted student formulas as a policy for improving equity for distributing resources to schools: A case study of two California school districts

This paper presents a case study of two California school districts, San Francisco and Oakland, each of which have implemented their own versions of what is popularly known as a weighted student formula (WSF). One primary goal of the WSF policy is to increase the equity with which resources are distributed to schools. With respect to equity, the findings suggest that for particular schooling levels per-pupil spending became more responsive to student poverty and that the increase in responsiveness appears to have coincided with implementation of the WSF in the two districts. Moreover, each district relies on a different mechanism for driving resources to the schools: San Francisco relying to a greater degree on the unrestricted funds, while Oakland relies more heavily on restricted sources which, as directed by law, drive dollars to special need populations. Interestingly, neither district exhibited any significant change in the distribution of teacher experience after implementation of their SBF models; schools serving the highest proportion of students from low-income families continued to employ teachers with the least experience after implementation of the SBF models. While an additional goal of WSF was to drive more resources down to the school level to be spent, our analysis found little substantial change in the proportion of resources expended at the school versus the district level.     

The effects of exemptions to Florida's test-based promotion policy: Who is retained?: Who benefits academically?

We evaluate the impact of Florida's test-based promotion policy on the probability that low-performing students are retained using data on the universe of third-grade students in the state of Florida from 2001 to 2004. We also examine the effect of formal exemptions to the policy on student proficiency in reading two years later. In an evaluation of retention for third-grade students over time with a logit model we find that Florida's policy has increased the probability that minority students are retained to a greater extent than white students. Contrary to previous research, this differential retention occurs after controlling for student academic proficiency. However, in an evaluation of the academic performance of students who were in the first class subject to the retention policy, we find that retained students outperform students who received an exemption from the policy in reading two years after baseline, indicating that on average exemptions have not been granted to those individuals who would benefit from promotion.     

Visual orienting in college athletes: explorations of athlete type and gender

Covert orienting was measured in 50 college athletes and 51 nonathletes of both genders. Visual environments of the sports were both static (swimming, track) and dynamic (soccer, volleyball). Participants made speeded responses in a task measuring vigilance, alerting, automatic orienting, voluntary orienting, modulation of automatic orienting, and modulation of inhibition of return. Gender differences werefound in the overall response times of nonathletes and in the alerting measures for all participants. However, all participants were similar in their automatic orienting. Sport-specific effects were seen in voluntary orienting and in the modulation of automatic orienting. These gender and sports-related findings are interpreted in light of the experience athletes have in the dynamic control of spatial attention.     

Electronic publishing: trends and responsive strategies

Corporate publishing organizations face a major practical task in deploying electronic publishing systems (EPS), with little strategic guidance. In response, this discussion focuses on large-scale trends at work in electronic publishing, their impact in a corporate environment, and strategies to address those trends. Specifically, the discussion begins by defining electronic publishing; continues with trends affecting document workflow, components of a situation analysis, and three potential organizational responses to the situation; and ends with a responsive strategy to compete for business in five dimensions: cost, convenience, timeliness, quality, and capability. Jay E. Gillette has worked as a senior technical planner at Bellcore since 1987. Previously he was a consultant in documentation and technical planning and served on the technical communication and humanities faculty of the Colorado School of Mines. He holds a Ph.D. in English from the University of California, Berkeley.