American Education Finance Association Research Articles

Thirty-Seven and Counting: How Has AEFP Evolved from Its Origins?

It has been a busy time for the Association of Education Finance and Policy (AEFP). Over the past few years the association has acquired a new name, a new journal, and many new members. The 2012 annual conference, convened in Boston last March, proved to be the largest conference in the association’s thirty-seven-year history, with 556 members in attendance. The theme, selected by incoming president Deborah Cunningham, was “Education Finance, Policy, and Practice: The Role of Evidence in a Dynamic World,” which underscores the contemporary challenge to the association: how to apply an increasing abundance of information and sophisticated analytical tools to produce the evidence needed to guide decision making by educational policy makers and practitioners. The Boston meeting was notable not only for the number in attendance. The unique qualities and strengths of the association were in clear display: papers of unusual methodological rigor; an interdisciplinary mix of academics from the social sciences, public policy schools, and colleges of education; educational finance professionals, policy analysts, and practitioners, a mix rarely found in the same place; and sessions addressing today’s hot topics as well as issues that have endured over the years. Having said this, all indications are that AEFP is what it has always been: a small, diverse group of people tackling some really big problems. Of particular note was a trend that has been growing for years but has clearly come into full flower: the large

What Do AEFA Members Say? Summary of Results of an Education Finance and Policy Survey

In the spring of 2008 the authors surveyed members of the American Education Finance Association (AEFA) to gain insight into their views on education policy issues. The results summarize opinions of this broad group of education researchers and practitioners, providing AEFA members and education leaders with access to views that may be helpful as they consider policies to analyze or pursue. This article reports the results in six areas of current policy interest. How should education aid be distributed? Is school choice a good thing? Does school finance reform work? What has accountability wrought? Can school policies close the black-white achievement gap? And how should teachers be compensated? Our findings identify areas of substantial agreement as well as areas where there is disagreement. For example, there is considerable agreement that state and federal governments should provide additional funding for disadvantaged students but disagreement on how to measure school finance adequacy.

Tales from the Other Side of Education Finance: Other Districts' Schools, Other Pathways into Teaching, and Other People's Preferences

July 01 2007 Tales from the Other Side of Education Finance: Other Districts' Schools, Other Pathways into Teaching, and Other People's Preferences Randall Reback Randall Reback Department of Economics, Barnard College, Columbia University, 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10027-6598, rr2165@columbia.edu Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Scholar Author and Article Information Randall Reback Department of Economics, Barnard College, Columbia University, 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10027-6598, rr2165@columbia.edu This policy brief is part of a series invited by this journal, in which authors discuss the results and policy implications of dissertations receiving the Jean Flanigan Outstanding Dissertation Award from the American Education Finance Association (AEFA). Online Issn: 1557-3079 Print Issn: 1557-3060 © 2007 American Education Finance Association2007 Education Finance and Policy (2007) 2 (3): 301–317. https://doi.org/10.1162/edfp.2007.2.3.301 Cite Icon Cite Permissions Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Search Site Citation Randall Reback; Tales from the Other Side of Education Finance: Other Districts' Schools, Other Pathways into Teaching, and Other People's Preferences. Education Finance and Policy 2007; 2 (3): 301–317. doi: https://doi.org/10.1162/edfp.2007.2.3.301 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentAll JournalsEducation Finance and Policy Search Advanced Search This content is only available as a PDF. © 2007 American Education Finance Association2007 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Comparing Teacher Mobility in Florida's Charter and Traditional Public Schools

Currently, we know very little about the mobility decisions of charter public school teachers and how these compare to the decisions made by traditional public school teachers. In addition, it is unclear whether the teachers who leave charter schools tend to be weaker or stronger than their peers. Using statewide administrative data, I begin to answer these questions by studying the magnitude and nature of teacher turnover in Florida's charter public schools compared with turnover in the state's traditional public schools. It appears that Florida's charter school administrators may be better able to recruit and retain teachers with high academic skills than their traditional counterparts. In addition, the mobility patterns exhibited by Florida's charter school teachers differ from those exhibited by traditional school teachers in important ways, including greater sensitivity to accountability measures and less sensitivity to salary considerations. I thank Steve Mangum, Kathy Peck, and Jeff Sellers of the Florida Department of Education for their assistance in obtaining and interpreting the data. I also thank Jeffrey Brooks, Douglas Harris, Stacey Rutledge, JimWyckoff, participants at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the American Education Finance Association, and an anonymous reviewer for their valuable comments. Any remaining errors are solely my responsibility.

PhD Attainment of Graduates of Selective Private Academic Institutions

In this article we focus on a homogeneous set of thirty-one highly selective private colleges and universities. The academic aptitudes and preparations of students attending these institutions are among the highest in the nation, and historically students from these institutions have been much more likely to go on to PhD study than the average college graduate nationwide; therefore, the behavior of students from these institutions is of special interest. © 2007 American Education Finance Association

The Imperative of 480 Schools

In 1969 Governor Rockefeller and the New York State Board of Regents appointed the New York State Commission on the Quality, Cost, and Financing of Elementary and Secondary Education to study and make recommendations on the quality, organization, governance, cost, and financing of education in New York State (1973). The commission, called the Fleischmann Commission (after its chair, Manly Fleischmann), included eighteen commissioners and about twenty professional staff and was advised by over 130 consultants who produced more than sixty reports. Incidentally, the commission staff and consultants included three American Education Finance Association presidents—Charles Benson(commissionstaffdirector),WalterGarms(consultant), and Jim Guthrie (deputy staff director)—as well as AEFA members, including Hank Levin. It also included economists, political scientists, sociologists, practitioners, and others studying education finance who had not been affiliated with AEFA. When completed in 1972, the commission’s three-volume report, totaling more than 1,200 pages, was the most thorough examination of the state of knowledge of education finance performed to date. Why subject you to this education finance trivia? Blue-ribbon education finance commissions often draw on an unusual mix of academics, policy makers, and practitioners with diverse backgrounds. The mix is unusual because these are groups that often do not talk with each other. Sociologists, economists, political scientists, and lawyers infrequently exchange ideas, and

Educational Finance Issues in North America

This paper provides a concise overview and critique of the proceedings of the 1992 annual conference of the American Education Finance Association. Issues addressed include new finance mechanisms for educational provision, spatial inequities, the funding of special needs education and the impact of expenditures on pupil performance.

The American Education Finance Association announces competition for the outstanding dissertation award

The American Education Finance Association announces competition for the outstanding dissertation award

American Education Finance Association

American Education Finance Association

School Finance Policies and Practices, the 1980's: A Decade of Conflict, First Annual Yearbook of the American Education Finance Association. James W. Guthrie

<i>School Finance Policies and Practices, the 1980's: A Decade of Conflict, First Annual Yearbook of the American Education Finance Association</i>. James W. Guthrie