Improving Student Learning When Budgets Are Tight

by Allan R. Odden

Overview

A how-to manual for achieving excellence despite budget cuts

This book offers a comprehensive framework to enhance student achievement in good times and in bad. The author provides a school improvement action plan and then shows how to target resources to implement that plan. More than just a “theory” book, this text describes concrete, specific actions that can be taken immediately. Key strategies include:

• Using data to support boosting student performance
• Focusing on effective instruction
• Setting goals to drive resource allocation priorities
• Setting priorities for situations that require budget cuts
• Hiring top teachers and providing ongoing professional development
• Providing needed technology resources

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781452217086
Publisher:	SAGE Publications
Publication date:	02/06/2012
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Allan Odden is Professor Emeritus of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Wisconsin-Madison; he also is Co-Director of the Strategic Management of Human Capital (SMHC) in public education and Co-Director of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE). CPRE is a consortium of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Pennsylvania, Harvard, Michigan, Northwestern, Teachers College-Columbia University, and Stanford Universities. He is an international expert on education finance, effective resource allocation and use, resource reallocation, the strategic management of human capital in education, teacher compensation, school-based management, and educational policy development and implementation. He consults regularly with states and districts on these issues.

His most recent books include School Finance: A Policy Perspective (Mc Graw Hill, 2008, 4th edition), with Lawrence O. Picus and How to Create World Class Teacher Compensation (Freeload Press, 2007) with Marc Wallace. Other books include Paying Teachers for What They Know and Do: New and Smarter Compensation Strategies to Improve Schools (Corwin Press, 1997, 2^nd Edition, 2002) with Carolyn Kelley; Reallocating Resources: How to Boost Student Achievement Without Spending More (Corwin, 2001) with Sarah Archibald; School Finance: A Policy Perspective (Mc Graw Hill, 1992, 2^nd Edition, 2000, 3^rd Edition 2004) co-authored with Lawrence Picus; School-Based Finance (Corwin Press, 1999), edited with Margaret Goertz; Financing Schools for High Performance: Strategies for Improving the Use of Educational Resources (Jossey Bass, 1998) with Carolyn Busch; Educational Leadership for America’s Schools (Mc Graw Hill, 1995); Rethinking School Finance: An Agenda for the 1990s (Jossey-Bass, 1992); Education Policy Implementation (State University of New York Press, 1991); and School Finance and School Improvement: Linkages for the 1980s (Ballinger, 1983).

He was a mathematics teacher and curriculum developer in New York City’s East Harlem for five years. He received his Ph D and MA degrees from Columbia University, a Masters of Divinity from the Union Theological Seminary and his BS in aerospace engineering from Brown University.

Table of Contents

List of Tables
Preface
Acknowledgments
About the Author
1. A Plan of Action: Turning Around Low-Performing and Enhancing High-Performing Schools
A Strategic Approach to Using the Education Dollar
A Plan of Action for Dramatically Improving Student Performance
Summary
2. The Resource Needs of the Plan of Action
Details of the Resource Needs of the Plan of Action
Example of a High-Spending District That Could Cut Spending
Linking Table 2.1 to School Finance Adequacy
Summary
3. Targeting Resources to Student Learning When Budgets Are Tight
Understand and Resist the Cost Increase Pressures on Schools
An Example of Strategic Resource Reallocation for a Midwestern Middle School
More Detail on Strategic Budgeting
Summary
4. Recruiting, Developing, and Compensating Top Educator Talent: Local Practices and Supporting State Policies
Acquiring, Developing, and Retaining Teacher Talent
Teacher Salary Structures
Educator Pensions
Summary
5. Computers and Technology in Education: Costs and Online Options
Costs of Technology Software and Hardware
Using Information Technologies for Instruction
Summary
6. When Budget Cuts Are Necessary
Cost Pressures, Goals, and Principles to Guide Strategic Budgeting
Ensuring a Solid Talent Foundation in Tight Fiscal Times
Engaging in Strategic Budgeting
Summary
References
Index

Editorial Reviews

Allan Odden’s book thoughtfully demonstrates that budgetary challenges facing our schools are immense and one that dedicated public servants are meeting with resilience and invention as they retain powerful education improvement strategies that close the achievement gap.

Rudy Crew

This is the right advice at the right time for schools. Allan Odden has provided practical tips for education leaders to put their resources behind the spending areas that are shown to improve student academic performance. His book is a “how-to manual” for school leaders to improve student performance at a time of limited resources.

Andrew Benson

Any leader who wants to understand school finance and budgeting should begin by learning from Alan Odden. This book combines research on what works to improve performance with resource implications and is filled with clear, comprehensive, and practical advice for school leaders who want to do more with less.

Karen Hawley Miles

This book offers a comprehensive framework to enhance student achievement in good times and in bad. It presents opportunities for schools and government to work together to strategically confront the budgetary challenges facing public education today.

Deborah H. Cunningham

"This new book brings together many years of work in a set of ideas that are compelling and feasible, especially in the current fiscal climate. Odden provides sensible, well grounded advice that would work in any setting. This is important work that deserves not just wide reading, but action. "

Ben Levin

"This how-to guide from noted ed-school professor and school-budget expert Allan Odden offers some necessary advice for school administrators learning to wield their budget axes deftly (and a number of helpful examples of how districts are doing just that). Odden’s mission—for district leaders to make cuts intelligently rather than clumsily or politically—would lead to a radical shift in the K-12 spending paradigm. And it’s about time. "

The Educational Gadfly