Funding schools ‘by the numbers’ – or how to make 140 students disappear
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In August, with the first day of school quickly approaching, as I worked on our school’s master schedule I began to wonder about whether my district office needed a refresher in basic math facts. It all started with the number 109. This number, according to the district, was the number of sixth graders that were going to show up on the first day of school.
The problem was that our data system had a different number in mind: 249.
249 – 109 = 140
This simple calculation showed a gap of 140 children between the projection of the district
State’s public colleges adrift - by Kathryn Baron
When the National Governors Association launched an initiative last year to increase college graduation rates, it offered $30,000 grants to states for developing model programs and policies that could be replicated around the country. California didn’t apply, and researcher Nancy Shulock is pretty sure she knows why. “There isn’t anybody whose job it is to coordinate [...]
