Insufficient solutions will consume your district's budget and provide inadequate data to justify your spending, warns one expert. Fortunately, leaders can identify the warning signs early.
Even with all 225 students, most staff members and a handful of parents inside, the Nellie Stone Johnson Community School's gymnasium was far from packed during a recent assembly. Yet the space buzzed with the kids' excited whispers.
Leaders must be all-in on reading—whether that's integrating reading activities into core subjects like mathematics and science or promoting school—or even district-wide reading challenges and events.
District Administration senior writer Matt Zalaznick was there as the superintendents, who represented 21 states, beseeched leaders to provide more financial and political support for mental health services, teacher preparation and retention, and English learners.
The ultimate goals of these often traumatic takeovers are, of course, to improve student achievement and achieve financial stability but, when it comes to the former, a growing body of research finds little evidence of success.
Local leaders have been voicing concern about the impending change for months. In February, Revere Mayor Brian Arrigo said the higher rates will drive up his city's out-of-district special education costs by $2.1 million to serve the same number of students.
"With federal discretionary spending at its lowest levels since 1989, cuts in federal aid pressure state and local governments to fill the gap," according to a new analysis by HeyTutor.
Schools are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and countless hours of staff labor to process these requests from parents who are cracking down on discussions they deem inappropriate in a classroom environment.
Hundreds of school leaders are in the nation's capital today advocating for increased federal funding to expand mental health counseling and fill staff vacancies.
The legislation would give families $8,000 in public funds to spend on private school or other educational costs. Only students currently enrolled in public school or just beginning their education would be eligible for the newly created "education savings accounts."
