State School Districts Research Articles

The Impact of Teacher Unions on School District Finance and Student Achievement: Evidence From the Great Recession

I examine whether the impact of the Great Recession on school district spending, the allocation of resources, and student achievement varied depending on the strength of state’s teachers’ unions. Employing a diff-in-diff-in-diff identification strategy, I find that school districts in states with strong teachers’ unions experienced significantly larger declines in per-pupil expenditures during the economic downtown compared with otherwise similar districts in states with weak teachers’ unions. The larger decline in expenditures in strong union states, however, did not lead to a differential decline in student achievement relative to weak union states.

Face Mask Policies of US Public School Districts in States without Statewide Mandates

Objective: We developed categories of the degree of restrictiveness of public schoolboards’ face mask policies in 10 US states that had no statewide mask mandates at any time during the COVID-19 pandemic. We collected data on schoolboards’ mask wearing policies for the individual boards in these states. Methods: We obtained school reopening plans found on school district webpages. We abstracted district mask policies and sorted them into groups indicating whether mask wearing was required or recommended. Results: Overall, 44% of boards mandated masks in school settings. There was a wide variation of policies within and between states. Conclusions: When left to their own resources, schoolboards will follow a variety of policies, many of which are a departure from state recommendations.

Multilevel Approach to Exploring Predictors of College Readiness in Reading and Mathematics

For high school graduates and non-graduates, this paper explored significant student and school level predictors of college readiness in reading and mathematics for 9,952 students from 52 schools in one of the largest school districts in the United States. This study employed a two-level Hierarchical Generalized Linear Model (HGLM) that included student level (level-1) and school level (level-2) predictors in order to predict three categories of college readiness formed in combination with high school graduates and non-graduates. The results presented the list of significant predictors and across-school variances for predicting college readiness in reading and mathematics. The results found several academic, behavioral, and demographic predictors at student and school levels producing significant effects on college readiness in reading and mathematics. The across-school variance components for predicting the probabilities of mastery in college readiness both in reading and mathematics are found significant.

Introduction to a Special Section on COVID-19 and Schooling in the U.S.: Disruption, Continuity, Quality, and Equity

ABSTRACT Globalization brings benefits such as economic growth and exposure to new products and people. Yet it also brings risks, as shown most recently by the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, we introduce a special section on how American k-12 schooling is responding to that pandemic. While media coverage has arguably overstated the dangers of COVID-19, this introduction and the three papers in this special section offer more empirical takes, which together suggest more pragmatism than partisanship in public responses. In the introduction, we compare U.S. and international schooling responses to the pandemic, in part using a survey of informants in 21 nation-states. Generally, the U.S. is taking a more cautious approach than most other developed countries regarding school reopening. Second, in a short white paper, Angela Watson of Johns Hopkins University offers a summary of the extant knowledge of learning pods in the U.S., a fascinating innovation flourishing during the pandemic. Third, in “Reopening America’s Schools: A Descriptive Look at How States and Large School Districts are Navigating Fall 2020,” David Marshall of Auburn University and Martha Bradley-Dorsey of the University of Arkansas discuss how the 50 U.S. states and 120 largest school districts are reopening, largely online. Finally, in “We’re All Teachers Now: Remote Learning During COVID-19,” Dick Carpenter and Joshua Dunn of the University of Colorado/Colorado Springs report results from a national survey of parents, including comparisons of public, charter, and private schools.

The Introduction of State Regulation and Auditor Retendering in School Districts: Local Audit Market Structure, Audit Pricing, and Internal Controls Reporting

SUMMARY Scandals discovered in New York school districts resulted in two legislative acts designed to improve internal control systems and independent audit quality within the State's school district audit market. The legislation requires that audits be awarded through a formal requisitioning process (RFP), including optional rotation, every five years. The Office of the New York State Comptroller auditors also began performing internal control inspections at school districts and performing audit quality inspections of independent auditors. Post-regulation, the audit market became more concentrated, with greater usage of specialist audit firms and fewer small firms. Audit fees and audit report lag increased substantially and specialist auditors began earning a fee premium. We also find a significant increase in internal control exceptions reported by New York school districts and variation in the reporting of control deficiencies by auditor type.

Developing Rural School Leaders Through Leadership Coaching: A Transformative Approach

ABSTRACT In this article, we report the findings of a study of a three-year, research-practice partnership designed to enhance the leadership capabilities of school leaders in 12 predominantly rural, high-poverty school districts in the southeastern United States. The partnership provided cross-district, job-embedded leadership development to ten school leaders through leadership coaching in a leadership learning community (LLC). Utilizing transformative learning theory, we illustrate how the leaders’ participation in the LLC increased their leadership capabilities through a combination of personalized learning, a focused improvement process, facilitation and coaching, and collaboration with other leaders. We conclude with implications for research and practice.

The Seal of Biliteracy: Variations in Policy and Outcomes

AbstractThe Seal of Biliteracy is an award that recognizes students who have demonstrated proficiency in English and one or more other world languages. In participating school districts in states that have adopted the Seal of Biliteracy, students who demonstrate proficiency in both English and a world language are eligible to earn a seal that is affixed to their high school diploma or transcript. With scant research conducted to date on the Seal of Biliteracy, this study aimed to understand the variation in policies across participating states. Documentation and interview data were collected and analyzed from each state offering the Seal of Biliteracy. Findings revealed that substantial variation existed across states regarding minimum required levels of proficiency, world language proficiency requirements, and English language proficiency requirements. These variations in policy influenced the types of schools offering the award and the percentage of students earning it. This article offers implications for those in the process of policy adoption or revision and for those who are interested in researching efforts to increase equity and access to the Seal of Biliteracy.

Do State Farm-to-School–Related Laws Increase Participation in Farm-to-School Programs?

ABSTRACTThis study used the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm to School Census to examine whether school districts in states with formal farm-to-school (FTS)-related laws had higher participation rates and a greater frequency of serving local foods in school meals than districts in states without such laws. The presence of FTS-related laws was associated with an increased likelihood of having FTS programs and with serving local foods at higher frequencies in school meal programs. Further research is required to assess the impact of specific types of laws in order to determine the most effective policies to support FTS programs.

Next Generation Science Standards: Preparing students for careers in energy-related fields

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) represent a new approach to teaching K-12 science education that involves the interweaving of three educational dimensions: science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts. Unlike most preexisting state science standards for public education, these new standards focus on what students can do and not on what they have memorized. The NGSS were motivated by the awareness within business and industry of the great need for better education in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) to meet future workforce demands for a global economy that is shifting toward higher technology levels. The Next Generation Science Standards were the result of an effort led by states, with 26 participating states involved in the writing. So far, the standards have been adopted in full by 14 states and the District of Columbia and have been adopted in part by several additional states and a large number of school districts in other states. The NGSS have an increased focus on human-relevant content areas, including the geosciences. Implementation of the standards will provide students with the skills, understanding, and appreciation to better prepare them for careers in energy industries.

There's No T in Fair?

Abstract The Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender History's scholarly Making the Framework FAIR report (2014) recommends substantial revisions to California's K–12 History–Social Science Framework in order to bring it into compliance with the FAIR Education Act. The law, passed in 2011, mandates inclusion of the roles and contributions of LGBT Americans and people with disabilities in the state's primary and secondary school US history education. To date, efforts to get state agencies, school districts, and educators to fully implement the FAIR Education Act have been insufficient, particularly in relation to transgender history. As the state undergoes History–Social Science Framework revision, it should adopt the transgender-inclusive changes suggested by Making the Framework FAIR report for grades two, four, five, eight, and eleven. This represents a golden opportunity to create comprehensive and lasting change across elementary, middle, and high school, in California and beyond.

How to more effectively lobby the legislative branch of government: report the extent of intellectual disability amongst a politician's constituents.

The use of national numbers and percentages to describe the millions of people with intellectual disabilities is beyond the comprehension of most people. The challenge is to personalize these numbers if we are to bring increased attention to these individuals. Examples of Census Bureau report data for the States, Congressional Districts, Counties, and High School districts are suggested as a format to lobby legislators with the realities of the numbers of their constituents who are affected by intellectual disabilities.

Advocating for Change in Your State or Local School District: A Successful Game Plan

Abstract All of us remember a time when we convinced our spouse to let our son try out for the football team, helped our daughter prepare and practice her speech for the student council election, pleaded with a teacher about a grade or assignment, or helped a parent or friend negotiate the health care system to get the right medical treatment.

Predictors of Academic Achievement for Latino Middle Schoolers

The aim of this study was to examine specific child, home, and school factors that predict academic achievement for Latino middle school students. The sample for this study (N = 173) was drawn from seven public schools located in three school districts in the northeastern United States. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to predict academic achievement from a combination of predictor variables: gender, parent educational attainment, parent employment status, acculturation, parent involvement in school, and school identification. Findings indicate that school identification and parent involvement in school are protective factors that promote Latino middle grade students' academic achievement. These findings suggest that collaborative partnerships between school social workers, teachers, and Latino students and their parents are an important strategy that can optimize connections to school that result in academic achievement.

Focal Points—What's Next for You?

NCTM's Curriculum Focal Points for Prekindergarten through Grade 8 Mathematics: A Quest for Coherence was published in 2006. Change, or reform, has been something we in mathematics education have been involved with for decades—some would say since Sputnik, or for half a century. The intent of Curriculum Focal Points is to begin a dialogue relative to curricular reform at the pre-K–8 level, paying particular attention to state and local school district curricular frameworks. Some state frameworks contain over 100 outcomes at each grade level. What's a teacher to do? What's really important at these grade levels?

Giving Teachers a Chance: Taking Special Education Teacher Preparation Programs to Rural Communities

Over the last several years special education teacher shortages have increased to alarming levels. Remote rural areas face even more critical special education teacher shortages. Many professionals teaching students with disabilities in rural areas do not have formal special education training. This article describes a distance education partnership program between Wright State University and school districts in rural Ohio that addresses special education teacher shortages in these areas. Although the program required intense effort from university faculty, partnership students, and district education staff, program benefits outweighed the work necessary to implement and maintain the program.

Exploration of School Administrator Attitudes Regarding Do Not Resuscitate Policies in the School Setting

Few school districts in the United States have policies relating to do not resuscitate (DNR) orders in the school setting. School administrators are the gatekeepers of policy development. Little is known about administrator attitudes related to DNR orders in the school setting. School nurses need to understand administrator attitudes in order to facilitate DNR policy development. This study explored the attitudes of 15 administrators about DNR orders in the school setting through structured interviews. Administrators were asked their attitudes about DNR orders in the school setting and about DNR policy implementation. The majority of administrators believed that DNR policies should not be developed for the school setting because of the emotions involved and lack of administrator knowledge related to DNR orders. The majority of administrators did agree that having a DNR policy would clarify how staff should respond to DNR orders at school.

Social Relations Spatially Fixed: Construction and Maintenance of School Districts in San Antonio, Texas

More than 140 court cases filed in the United States between 1970 and 2003 argued that unacceptable and unconstitutional funding disparities exist among school districts in most states. In those arguments, stories, statistics, and maps are used to compare various school districts to prove that conditions are indeed unequal. Both sides—plaintiff and defendant—use such information to disprove each other's contentions. In so doing, each assumes that the political spaces of the school districts are absolute, timeless, and independent. Failure to recognize that these spaces—the school districts—are not objective but, in fact, constitutive of the class and race relations actually being argued and debated in court further legitimates local geographies of privilege and deprivation. I examine the formation of the school districts around San Antonio, Texas to illustrate that these districts are far from independent of one another and were formed to isolate privileged communities from the rest of the city. A relational view of space‐time allows such spaces as school districts to assume a political role, as opposed to the absolute, independent spaces they now represent.

The Effect of Residential School Choice on Public High School Graduation Rates

This study evaluates the effect of school district size on public high school graduation rates. The study calculates the graduation rate for each graduating class in each state between 1991 and 2002 and uses a fixed-effects model to examine the relationship between these graduation rates and changes in the size of each state's school districts during that period. The analysis indicates that decreasing the average size of a state's school districts by 200 square miles leads to an increase of about 1.64 percentage points in its graduation rate. To put this result into context, if Florida decreased the size of its school districts to the national median, it would increase its graduation rate by about 4.5 percentage points.

Does the school nurse have a role to play in school discipline?

Student discipline has become a subject of increasing concern at local, state, and national levels. This article is a discussion of current federal, state, and local school district legal requirements for student discipline in public schools with examples that illustrate several issues that could or should involve a school nurse. A brief history of the legal developments in school discipline includes key U.S. Supreme Court decisions and Acts of Congress. School district options in policy development and disciplinary procedures are discussed. Some of the discipline incidents include issues of nurse-patient confidentiality.

Efficient utilization of resources in public schools: a case study of New Jersey

The academic performance of public schools in the United States has been declining for more than two decades now, and this is a hotly debated topic since this deterioration in performance has important implications on the quality of labour and on the productivity growth of the nation (Bishop, 1989). Moreover, the performance among school districts in states varies significantly, raising questions about the factors contributing to the large variability in performance. One area where the current debate has been focused is the ability and quality of the school management to use the available resources efficiently, giving rise to the issues of a voucher system and the private management of the public schools. This study measures the efficiency of public schools for the state of New Jersey using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) method; it also examines the effect of certain socio-economic factors on efficiency. We find that the average efficiency for all schools is 81%. The wealthiest districts have an efficiency score of 88% while for the neediest districts the efficiency is 63%. However, when we adjust for socio-economic factors the difference between the two groups becomes smaller.