The effect of school district structure on education spending

This paper develops a theoretical and empirical model of local spending on education that analyzes the effect of institutional structure on education spending. It attempts to determine whether the theory of bureaucratic behavior is consistent with school district spending decisions by testing the hypothesis that the number of school districts in a county has a negative effect on per pupil expenditures. The results are not consistent with the theory, but indicate that a fragmented school district structure serves to increase expenditures.     

From patronage politics to community deliberation: the recent experience of democratic school management in Brazil

The article discusses the limits and possibilities of school empowerment within education systems plagued by pervasive patronage politics. The analysis focuses on reform initiatives implemented by Brazilian sub‐national governments throughout the 1980s and 1990s to allow for the election of school principals by parents, teachers and students. Until the implementation of this reform, state and local authorities had relied on the school system as a source of patronage resources, and principals were nominated according to political criteria. The new system of democratic school management was expected to undermine this patronage‐based system and foster community participation in school decisions. The article relies on secondary evidence to assess the impact of school elections in what concerns the participation of parents, students and teachers in school affairs and the relationship between schools, party politicians and education administrators. It concludes that high levels of social inequality and the lack of a universalistic and effective system of welfare provision constitute serious obstacles to the empowerment of disadvantaged groups in developing societies such as Brazil. On the other hand, the article argues that school empowerment has the potential to undermine resilient patronage structures, by introducing universalistic mechanisms of decision‐making and making school administrators more accountable to their constituencies. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Measuring Citizen Preferences for Public Services Using Surveys: Does a “Gray Peril” Threaten Funding for Public Education?

Given the rising share of senior citizens and their higher voter participation rates, seniors could represent a sizeable bloc of voters in many local elections. Concerns have been raised about a "gray peril," where seniors vote against some local services, such as education. Preferences for education are examined using a contingent valuation survey method in the context of local school budget referenda. The results suggest for this district that elders are a heterogeneous group, and that block voting against schools is unlikely. The impact of age on preferences appears more likely to emerge in how these groups respond to changes in their economic circumstances.     

公共教育资源配置失衡及其政策补给——以湘南H区2005年的相关教育数据为分析样本

教育公平一直以来是中国公共管理领域重点讨论的话题。公共教育资源分配不均衡和教育服务的不充分与不对等是造成教育不公的主要原因。以2005年湘南H区义务教育状况为样本,运用实地调查和统计分析的研究方法,从教育财政资源、教师资源、学生资源三个方面分析了当前地方公共教育资源配置失衡的状况及其原因。由于长期实行城市偏向的教育政策和重点校制度,形成了农村教育和城市教育以及"重点学校"和"普通学校"的天壤之别,从而导致了公共教育资源配置失衡和公共教育的不平等。因此,要最终促进公共教育的均衡发展和公共教育服务的均等化供给,必须纠正原有的政策偏差,进一步统筹城乡发展,加大农村教育投入力度,确保农村教育投入的优先性;必须打破原有办学特权,实现办学点和生源的均衡配置;必须实施鼓励和优惠政策,避免城乡教育"马太效应"的持续恶化。     

Grammar Schools,a Policy of Social Mobility and Selection—Why?

Initially, four plausible reasons for introducing selection in secondary education are examined, three of which are irrelevant to contemporary debates about expanding grammar‐school education. These are: first, to ration education in less advanced economies; second, to increase the supply of skilled labour within an expanded national elite; third, as part of a ‘segmented’ system of education. A fourth—increasing upward social mobility—is open to two objections: first, the May government's proposals are so limited as to have little likely impact on mobility and, second, upward mobility in the twentieth century was possible only because of structural change in the British labour market, and that will probably not continue in this century. Finally, it is argued that attempts to select the ‘best’ in any activity or skill are necessarily highly imperfect, and are far less accurate than testing who does and does not meet some minimum level of competence.     

Determinants of congressional minimum wage support: the role of economic education

Much has been made about the lack of economic education among the public at large, yet little has been said about the limited education of Members of Congress. This paper examines the economic education levels of Members of Congress voting on the 2007 increase in the minimum wage. Controlling for a variety of characteristics of members and constituents, this study finds that members who majored in economics as undergraduates were less likely to vote for the minimum wage increase than their colleagues. No other major had a consistent influence. A large number of statistical specifications confirm the robustness of the finding.     

Policy of decentralization and changing governance of higher education in post‐Mao China

Unlike the Mao era when educational development was entirely directed by the central government, there has been a strong trend to diversification and decentralization of education in the post‐Mao period. This article, being set in this context, examines how the policy of decentralization has affected the governance modes of higher education in Mainland China. More specifically, the article focuses on three major aspects of education governance, namely, financing, provision and regulation in education, with special attention given to examining the changing relations between the state, local governments and other agents in education delivery. One very significant consequence of the change is that the public‐good functions of education, of which the state has taken the primary role of a reliable guarantor, have diminished. Nonetheless, the state's role as a regulator and overall service coordinator has been strengthened rather than weakened under the policy of decentralization. These recent developments in China's higher education also reflect the global trend of decentralization in educational governance. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Paying for grades: Impact of merit‐based financial aid on educational quality

In contrast to education reform efforts that target teachers and schools, merit‐based financial aid for college increases the incentives for high school students and their families to directly affect the quality of education by investing more time and effort in schoolwork. Large‐scale merit‐based aid programs, such as Georgia's HOPE Scholarship, seek to improve education by encouraging students to meet higher standards, in this case by obtaining a 3.0 grade point average in high school and college. Since the HOPE program began in 1993, the number of high school graduates qualifying for the aid has steadily increased to more than 38,000 graduates in the class of 1998, or 59.5 percent of the graduating class. At the same time, the relationship between grades and achievement has remained consistent or, in some cases, improved since HOPE began. In fact, African–American males and females with a 3.1 high school core course grade point average have increased their average Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) scores by more than 20 points. This indicates that merit‐based aid has improved the quality of K–12 education in Georgia and reduced racial performance disparities by motivating students and their families to commit greater effort to schooling. © 2002 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.     

论网络时代的高校思想政治教育工作

在阐述网络时代高校思想政治教育工作遇到的机遇和挑战的基础上,分析了高校开展思想政治教育工作的新对策,如建立网上思想政治教育阵地、提高高校思想政治教育工作队伍的综合素质、提高大学生网上道德意识、开展网上思想政治教育活动等,以达到充分利用互联网有效开展思想政治教育工作的目的。     

民族地区学校教育与民族文化关系探究

在现代化背景下,民族地区学校教育与民族文化关系问题面临诸多困境。学校教育在民族地区的一个重要任务在于如何防止现代化的负面效应,并积极地从民族文化的保护与传承方面,解决民族成员的心理不适与精神困惑。这就要求学校教育既要传授普世性知识,又要兼顾到地方性知识,但目前实施效果并不理想。民族文化需要被重新认识,重新理解。     

发达国家性教育模式对中国学校性教育的启示

在全球化大背景下,学校的性教育问题引起世界各国越来越多的关注。作为性教育先行的欧洲发达国家,性教育模式也是多种多样。我国的学校性教育起步较晚,近年来,学校性教育的状况也令人堪忧。我国应当借鉴发达国家学校性教育的成果,从我国国情出发,探索出切实有效的学校性教育模式和可行性措施,这对于解决我国学校性教育现状的困境有着重要的实际意义。     

对聋人大学生性教育的认识和思考

随着我国残疾人教育事业发展日益壮大,聋人高等教育已经取得了可喜的进步,但是性教育目前没有得到充分的关注。通过探讨聋人大学生性教育现状,并进一步分析其原因。希望引起学校重视,并为高校的教育教学提供了一种新型的理论和实践的依据。     

坚持科教兴川 加大四川教育改革与发展力度

文章概括了四川教育总体现状,提出了四川教育改革发展的六大目标(“双基”目标、高中阶段教育目标、高等教育目标、民族地区教育目标、民办教育目标和职业教育、成人教育、终身教育体系目标),指出了四川教育改革发展的四大措施:①全面创新,深化改革;②增加教育投入,确保事业顺利发展;③加强师资队伍建设、提高教育整体素质;④加强领导和宏观指导,狠抓各项工作的落实。     

Choice in Public Services: Crying 'Wolf' in the School Choice Debate

Choice, diversity and personalisation have been key to the New Labour project in public services. With the emergence of a reinvigorated Conservative party as a credible electoral threat, and the end of the Blair era, it seems appropriate to consider the continuing viability and longevity of the New Labour public service project. In this article, I approach the issue of choice in public services through an examination of the long-running controversy over choice in the English secondary school system. I argue that the opponents of choice have been reluctant to engage with the notion of choice in public services due to concerns over the supposed negative effect that consumer choice has on the equity and quality of service provision. This paper aims to challenge the claim that any element of choice in education necessarily has deleterious effects on social justice. I argue that the case against school choice has not been decisively made and that school choice can, in principle, form part of a socially progressive educational project by redistributing power to service users and helping to maintain popular support for public provision of education.     

Education Polocy: A new Context for Governance

Since 1983 education policy has been in transition. The stateshave undertaken major initiatives to enhance academic rigorand improve student performance. These state actions have beenunprecedented, particularly with respect to the variety of educationissues addressed and the extent to which the actions involvestate policymakers in central schooling issues. The reformsmark fundamental changes in education governance. The stateshave become the leaders in education policymaking. The federalrole, historically small in terms of funding but important inproviding programmatic leadership, has diminished in the 1980s.Relationships among state education policymakers have changedin that legislators and governors have eclipsed state boardsand education experts in formulating policies related to teachingand learning. Finally, local districts feel that their autonomyis severely threatened by the reforms and wonder whether localcontrol is still a viable concept.     

Do School Report Cards Produce Accountability Through the Ballot Box?

Public education has been transformed by the widespread adoption of accountability systems that involve the dissemination of school district performance information. Using data from Ohio, we examine if elections serve as one channel through which these accountability systems might lead to improvements in educational quality. We find little evidence that poor performance on widely disseminated state and federal indicators has an impact on school board turnover, the vote share of sitting school board members, or superintendent tenure, suggesting that the dissemination of district performance information puts little (if any) electoral pressure on elected officials to improve student achievement.     

Does restricting choice in referenda enable governments to spend more?

If school boards represent the preferences of the median voter, referendums to approve school expenditures should not constrain school expenditures. If school boards would choose expenditures larger than the median voter’s preference, referendums that restrict voters to approving or disapproving a school board’s recommended expenditure level will result in expenditures larger than the median voter would prefer. However, Florida used a unique referendum system which guaranteed the median voter’s most preferred outcome. Using Florida education expenditures as a benchmark, the evidence suggests that spending was slightly higher in restricted choice referendum states than in Florida.     

Education Reform and Accountability Issues in an Intergovernmental Context

Since the early 1980s, widespread expressions of concern aboutpublic education in the United States have been accompaniedby various proposals for improving public school performance.This article develops a conceptual framework for analyzing educationreform and accountability issues in an intergovernmental context.The writers then identify and discuss common themes in fiveprominent education reform efforts in the United States: (1)the promulgation of specific goals and requirements for publicschools; (2) the introduction of open-enrollment plans; (3)the establishment of charter schools; (4) the encouragementof private contracting for the delivery of school services;and (5) the development of public and private voucher programs.While diverse, each of these efforts involves a deliberate attemptto change the accountability mechanisms in the delivery of education,and all have been affected by intergovernmental politics.     

日本“不登校”研究对我国城市辍学研究的启示

辍学作为世界范围内的教育病理现象之一,已经引起各国的广泛关注。目前我国尤其是城市地区出现由非经济原因引起的辍学现象。日本自20世纪50年代开始就出现此类现象,并已形成较系统的学生"不登校"理论和实践体系。本文对日本的不登校研究和我国的城市辍学研究做了比较和分析,并从概念、理论、实践和理念四个角度,探讨了日本"不登校"研究对我国城市辍学研究的借鉴意义和启示。     

Evaluating Urban Public Schools: Parents,Teachers, and State Assessments

Among the most contentious questions in public administration is how the performance of public organizations should be evaluated, and nowhere is this issue more salient than in urban public schools. While significant attention has been devoted to studying administrative measures of public organizations, the views of citizens concerning performance have been widely criticized and are not frequently gathered by schools. How these assessments relate to each other is central to many questions in education policy (e.g., choice, equity) and has important implications for democracy, bureaucratic professionalism, and public performance. This debate can be viewed as focusing on the distinction between convergent validity and discriminant validity. Using data from New York City's public school system with a cross‐sectional time‐series approach, parent and teacher evaluations are compared to government records of schools’ characteristics and performance. The findings suggest that parents and teachers are able to conduct intelligent, meaningful evaluations of school quality.