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ERIC ED397516: Bending without Breaking: Improving Education throug... |
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by ERIC |
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Controversy abounds in states and communities across the |
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United States about how best to manage the nation's |
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schools. Much of the current debate over school reform |
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can be reduced to a single question: Who should decide? |
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This report discusses some of the ways in which |
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policymakers have attempted to give schools greater |
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flexibility from rules and regulations. The report is |
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based on the belief that the existence of school choice |
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will create competitive pressures for schools to improve. |
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It presents a variety of strategies to provide greater |
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flexibility for education, and asserts that the key to |
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flexibility is a fundamental change in the relationships |
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between individual schools and the public agencies that |
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authorize and fund them. Schools must control real-dollar |
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resources and key employment decisions. The report argues |
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that flexibility allows schools to be more responsive to |
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parents' wishes and students' needs; gives teachers and |
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administrators a stronger sense of purpose and |
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responsibility; creates models of innovation; and |
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encourages schools to use their resources more |
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efficiently. The range of strategies that promote |
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flexibility can be divided into two broad categories: (1) |
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those that are designed to apply to all schools; and (2) |
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those that present individual schools, districts, and |
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communities with options. The first category includes |
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waivers; state education code revisions; standards, |
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assessment, and accountability reforms; public school |
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choice; vouchers; collective bargaining changes; school- |
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finance changes; and the restructuring of state education |
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agencies and school district offices. The second category |
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includes decentralized decision making and alternative |
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models of delivering education, such as charter schools, |
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reform networks, and private contracting. The document |
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also outlines the new roles for schools, school boards, |
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state education agencies, and states under a flexible |
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framework. One figure, a matrix showing state-by-state |
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policies, and a list of contributors are included. |
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(Contains 29 references.) (LMI) |
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Date Published: 2015-12-15 02:58:22 |
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Identifier: ERIC_ED397516 |
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Item Size: 51580027 |
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Language: english |
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Media Type: texts |
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# Topics |
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ERIC Archive; Charter Schools; Decent... |
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# Collections |
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ericarchive |
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additional_collections |
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# Uploaded by |
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@chris85 |
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