Thus, the cost of education refers to the amount of money a school district must spend to achieve any particular educational outcome, such as providing all children with an equal opportunity to read at the fourth-grade level by the end of the fourth grade. Some school districts, due to factors over which they have no control, must spend more money to achieve the same educational goal. This paper explains why guaranteeing an adequate education for all students requires that state aid formulas account for cost differences across school districts. According to Anne Henderson in a recent report issued by 44 educational reform organizations, a fundamental flaw of the reform move-ment is that parents and communities are not included in meaningful ways. The benefits extend to families too.
Parents develop more confidence in the school.
The teachers of their children have higher opinions of them as parents and higher expectations of their children. As a result, parents develop more confidence, not only about helping their children learn, but also about themselves as parents. Often the involvement encourages parents to seek more education. Professor James Spillane of Northwestern University conducted a 5-year study of how teachers changed their classroom practices. Spillane observed and interviewed a subsample of 25 teachers who said they had changed their teaching practices to fit with the state reforms.