Comparative Study of Fifty-one California K-12 School Districts’ Local Control and Accountability Plans

Comparative Study of Fifty-one California K-12 School Districts’ Local Control and Accountability Plans PDF Author: Christina Eleanor Murdoch Mills
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780355451108
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
In the past five years, the California State Legislature and State Board of Education have enacted comprehensive, statewide reforms of K-12 public education that have created a new system of funding, curriculum standards, standardized testing, and accountability in California school districts. Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs) were developed under the new policy, linking accountability to district planning with a focus on growth and improvement. This LCAP study uses a mixed methods approach to addresses the following three questions: 1. What goals, programs and services are identified in a sample of LCAPs from fifty-one Unified School Districts with high percentages of low SES students in California? 2. What are the similarities and differences between the goals, programs and services of relatively high and low performing schools districts in this sample? 3. Are the goals, programs and services in school district LCAPs consistent with what the academic literature on school improvement suggests districts focus on in order to improve? Educational research literature supports much of the new LCAP policy in California education, particularly the studies of organizational change, leadership and school districts as systems. The most effective education systems exhibit coherence at all levels of the system (Fullan, 2015). Importantly, what emerged from my study was that overall a limited number of significant differences can be identified when comparing the LCAP goals and programs of high and low performing districts. However, the LCAP data does suggest that a handful of statistically significant differences exist between how high performing and low performing unified school districts define their goals, programs and services in LCAPs. The LCAP as a tool has some potential to inform the public, policymakers and district leaders about how school improvement efforts are unfolding in California. Findings from the sampled LCAPs in this study suggest the following: relatively high performing school districts focus more on professional development and development of an instructional system than low performing districts do. High performing districts also have a greater focus on low-income students. Conversely, low performing district LCAPs focus more on counseling and behavioral support and family engagement. While high and low performing districts have different approaches to narrowly focused programs, specifically career technical education (CTE) and summer school programs, this study provides an exploration of the relationship between identified needs and strategic focus as well as how these factors relate to the research literature.

Comparative Study of Fifty-one California K-12 School Districts’ Local Control and Accountability Plans

Comparative Study of Fifty-one California K-12 School Districts’ Local Control and Accountability Plans PDF Author: Christina Eleanor Murdoch Mills
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780355451108
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

Get Book Here

Book Description
In the past five years, the California State Legislature and State Board of Education have enacted comprehensive, statewide reforms of K-12 public education that have created a new system of funding, curriculum standards, standardized testing, and accountability in California school districts. Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs) were developed under the new policy, linking accountability to district planning with a focus on growth and improvement. This LCAP study uses a mixed methods approach to addresses the following three questions: 1. What goals, programs and services are identified in a sample of LCAPs from fifty-one Unified School Districts with high percentages of low SES students in California? 2. What are the similarities and differences between the goals, programs and services of relatively high and low performing schools districts in this sample? 3. Are the goals, programs and services in school district LCAPs consistent with what the academic literature on school improvement suggests districts focus on in order to improve? Educational research literature supports much of the new LCAP policy in California education, particularly the studies of organizational change, leadership and school districts as systems. The most effective education systems exhibit coherence at all levels of the system (Fullan, 2015). Importantly, what emerged from my study was that overall a limited number of significant differences can be identified when comparing the LCAP goals and programs of high and low performing districts. However, the LCAP data does suggest that a handful of statistically significant differences exist between how high performing and low performing unified school districts define their goals, programs and services in LCAPs. The LCAP as a tool has some potential to inform the public, policymakers and district leaders about how school improvement efforts are unfolding in California. Findings from the sampled LCAPs in this study suggest the following: relatively high performing school districts focus more on professional development and development of an instructional system than low performing districts do. High performing districts also have a greater focus on low-income students. Conversely, low performing district LCAPs focus more on counseling and behavioral support and family engagement. While high and low performing districts have different approaches to narrowly focused programs, specifically career technical education (CTE) and summer school programs, this study provides an exploration of the relationship between identified needs and strategic focus as well as how these factors relate to the research literature.

Artifacts of Accountability

Artifacts of Accountability PDF Author: Diana Gabriela Mercado-Garcia
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :

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Book Description
Accountability and evaluation systems are pervasive throughout the U.S. K-12 education system. Former reform efforts, such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), used high stakes testing and punitive sanctions in combination with incentives to shape organizational practices according to desired outcomes. More recent developments in federal and state legislation, however, have given rise to a new type of accountability system that relies less on singular rankings or ratings, provides support rather than punishment, and extends local control to school districts. The changes occurring in California via the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) set the stage for this new era of accountability, which incorporates some elements from the previous system while also introducing new evaluation components. These shifts provide an opportunity to examine accountability under a new policy context. How do school districts respond to these changes? Through qualitative content analysis of accountability documents, known as Local Control Accountability Plans (LCAPs), I conduct two studies to better understand how school districts justify resource allocation to their varied institutional audiences and to investigate how school districts make sense of performance outcomes in narrative form. Ultimately, I claim that these documents represent artifacts of accountability, which reveal how organizations avoid, negotiate, or resolve tensions in public priorities and values.

Puzzling Plans and Budgets

Puzzling Plans and Budgets PDF Author: Theresa Chen
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 10

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Book Description
On July 1, 2013, Gov. Jerry Brown signed California's landmark Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) into law. In addition to providing districts with greater control over how to spend funds, LCFF marked a tremendous opportunity for educational equity. The new funding law gave districts additional resources, called supplemental and concentration grants, to provide more services for English learners, foster youth, and low-income students. This brief follows up on the transparency issues raised in the 2014 report, "Building a More Equitable and Participatory School System in California: The Local Control Funding Formula's First Year." That report identified two key concerns about the transparency of the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP), the planning and budgeting tool that LCFF mandated for school districts to communicate their strategies for improving student outcomes and performance. Findings show that, in their second year, LCAPs continue to lack budget transparency. As a result, the concerns raised in the 2014 report remain the same: without a comprehensive understanding of a district's spending, communities are unable to make a clear and full assessment of whether supplemental/concentration dollars are indeed reaching high-need students. This report recommends that state leaders and policymakers improve the LCAP by revising the template, sharing best practices, and clarifying unallowable uses of supplemental/concentration grants. A balance of local control and fiscal transparency can safeguard the transformational promise of LCFF of increased equity for children in California. The authors reviewed 2015-16 LCAPs across the same 40 school districts studied in the 2014 report. These districts ranged from Trinity Alps Unified, a small district with 660 students, to the state's largest district, Los Angeles Unified, with almost 650,000 students. Most districts had high percentages of the students targeted for additional funding. The review focused on two key questions: (1) To what extent are the 2015-16 LCAPs transparent?; and (2) To what extent do the 2015-16 LCAPs demonstrate that supplemental/concentration grants are being targeted to high-need students? Though this review focused primarily on questions of transparency, it also analyzed trends in the types of programs and services districts proposed in their LCAPs. The following are appended: (1) Districts Selected For LCAP Analysis; (2) What Programs and Services Do Districts Propose in Their LCAPs?; and (3) Model Budget Format. [This report was written with the assistance of Carrie Hahnel, Natalie Wheatfall, and Leni Wolf.].

Resources in Education

Resources in Education PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Research in Education

Research in Education PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 1262

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American Doctoral Dissertations

American Doctoral Dissertations PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Dissertation abstracts
Languages : en
Pages : 624

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Cincinnati Magazine

Cincinnati Magazine PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 184

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Book Description
Cincinnati Magazine taps into the DNA of the city, exploring shopping, dining, living, and culture and giving readers a ringside seat on the issues shaping the region.

Governing Metropolitan Areas

Governing Metropolitan Areas PDF Author: David K. Hamilton
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136330046
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
Interest and research on regionalism has soared in the last decade. Local governments in metropolitan areas and civic organizations are increasingly engaged in cooperative and collaborative public policy efforts to solve problems that stretch across urban centers and their surrounding suburbs. Yet there remains scant attention in textbooks to the issues that arise in trying to address metropolitan governance. Governing Metropolitan Areas describes and analyzes structure to understand the how and why of regionalism in our global age. The book covers governmental institutions and their evolution to governance, but with a continual focus on institutions. David Hamilton provides the necessary comprehensive, in-depth description and analysis of how metropolitan areas and governments within metropolitan areas developed, efforts to restructure and combine local governments, and governance within the polycentric urban region. This second edition is a major revision to update the scholarship and current thinking on regional governance. While the text still provides background on the historical development and growth of urban areas and governments' efforts to accommodate the growth of metropolitan areas, this edition also focuses on current efforts to provide governance through cooperative and collaborative solutions. There is also now extended treatment of how regional governance outside the United States has evolved and how other countries are approaching regional governance.

Resources in Education

Resources in Education PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 1032

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Book Description


Government and Health Services

Government and Health Services PDF Author: William Shonick
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN:
Category : Medical policy
Languages : en
Pages : 544

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Book Description
This book examines the role of government in developing the system of health services in the U.S. mainly during the years 1930 through 1980. It traces the building of this system during this critical period within the framework of the overarching economic, social, and political policies adopted by American governments. The author's range of coverage is extremely broad, from "public health" through medical care, health manpower, health facilities, national development of local health planning, and regulation of private services. Medicare care and the special circumstances that led to the failure to establish a system of universal and comprehensive medical care coverage--an outcome unique among the developed democracies of the world--are emphasized. Environmental health protection and health education are treated in considerable detail, and again the particular paths followed in their development are shown to reflect the ways in which American society as a whole has evolved. The book contributes to an understanding of what actually happened in the 50 developmental years in contrast to widely accepted notions about the inexorable outcome of government health service programs based on some strongly arguable theoretical formulations. Although the primary emphasis is on social policy analysis, the descriptive treatment of health service structures is sufficiently detailed so that the book can serve as a text and reference on health services practice and organization. No other volume of comparable scope and depth is available, and this book is also unique in the degree to which it embeds health services policy analysis in the theory and practice of the social welfare state.