Smart money
Subtitle: using educational resources to accomplish ambitious learning goals
By: Jacob E. Adams, Jr., editor
Publisher: Harvard Education Press
Published: 2010
Place of publication: Cambridge, Mass
Language: eng
Number of pages: 334
ISBN-13: 9781934742594; 9781934742600
Subjects: Education; Finance
Other titles: Using educational resources to accomplish ambitious learning goals
Description: "Education finance has emerged as one of the most pressing public policy issues of the new century. Americans spend more than $500 billion a year on elementary and secondary education, yet neither policy makers nor practitioners seem to know how to align these resources with student learning goals.^

In fact, spending increases have outstripped achievement gains." "This ambitious volume poses four critical questions:" "What 'obstacles prevent today's education finance systems and resource allocation strategies from supporting student success?" "What design principles can help link resources to student learning?" "What funding mechanisms are consistent with these principles?" "What conditions are necessary to support effective resource policies and practices?" "Drawing on the work of the School Finance Redesign Project at the University of Washington's Center on Reinventing Public Education, Smart Money brings together research on education finance policy and the uses of school and district resources, providing a uniquely comprehensive analysis of school finance systems.^

It also sets forth an agenda for developing and supporting successful strategies for school finance and resource use at the federal, state, district, and school levels." ""Adams and his coauthors do not shy away from the difficulties involved in reforming school finance. They acknowledge the challenges that must be addressed m creating political conditions to support new finance systems and call for an aggressive research and development agenda to guide the process of change with good evidence about what works to improve student learning."-Janet Hansen, vice president and director of education studies, Committee for Economic Development" ""Smart Money is an unprecedented book that tackles head-on the need to redesign and reorient school funding systems toward student learning and more strategic resource use.^

These thoughtful and informative analyses are especially timely as educators, policy makers, and the public strive to raise academic standards for all students in difficult economic conditions."-Margaret Goertz, professor of education, University of Pennsylvania" ""Written by the leading scholars and policy analysts in the field, this volume is laden with smart ideas for making our educational financing system a catalyst for experimentation, innovation, and improved student performance."-Martin Orland, director of evaluation and policy research, WestEd" ""This analysis by some of the wisest people in the school finance world, with Jacob Adams's masterful introduction, should be required reading for the architects of the next reform wave."-Robert F. Sexton, executive director, Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence"--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 281-312) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction:; title: Smart money and America's schools / Jacob E. Adams, Jr. --; title: Making smart-money investments in public education:; title: Ambitious learning goals require a new approach to educational resources  -- Jacob E. Adams, Jr.; title: Removing impediments to effective use of resources:; title: How federal categorical funding prevents the effective use of resources  -- Christopher T. Cross and Marguerite Roza.; title: Allocating resources through traditional versus reform-oriented collective bargaining agreements  -- Julia E. Koppich; title: Integrating resources with learning:; title: Organizing school systems for continuous improvement  -- Joanne Weiss.; title: Making strategic resource decisions  -- Karen Hawley Miles.; title: Merging costs with effective resource strategies  -- Allan R. Odden, Michael E. Goetz, and Lawrence O. Picus; title: Expanding resource knowledge and experimenting with new methods:; title: Making resource decisions amid technical uncertainty  -- James W. Guthrie and Paul T. Hill.; title: Considering outside-the-box changes in education funding  -- David H. Monk.; title: Linking education funding with standards-based reform and community-based resources  -- Michael W. Kirst and Lori Rhodes; title: Building a smart-money educational resource system:; title: Creating the political conditions for education finance policy change  -- Lorraine M. McDonnell.; title: Chosing the smart-money path to education finance innovation -- Jacob E. Adams, Jr.