We are in a race against time to save urban children from educational failure and to reform urban school systems before people give up on them. The authors examine the effectiveness of three reform approaches: systems reform, mayoral influence, and external state or federal intervention, using case studies from seven large cities, as well as state and national trends.

The social and economic transformation of large American cities after World War II laid the seeds for the crisis in urban education that has festered and grown since the 1950s. Decades of appalling test scores and failure rates, and of unsuccessful piecemeal efforts to improve urban education, have led the public and policymakers to embrace radical solutions to reform.

Three approaches to the reform of urban school governance are discussed and analyzed, using data from seven large cities (Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and New York), national trends, and a statewide analysis of Maryland's school accountability system. The first approach, systems reform, focuses on improving the governance of urban education by overcoming policy fragmentation through standards for student performance, student assessments, and accountability, among other things. Strong mayoral roles offer a second reform approach that largely reverses the Progressive-era reforms of the last century separating schools from city politics. Its supporters believe urban mayors can restore accountability, stability, and political support for urban schools. The third reform approach assumes that external intervention by federal or state authorities is needed to restore accountability and improve system performance.

Resource allocation decisions made by school boards, principals, and teachers are critical for they determine the adequacy and equity of resources actually made available for specific schools, educational programs and individual students. The most important resources are often concealed by aggregate state or district measures such as dollars per student. For these decisions, the most important resources are elements such as basic and supplemental staffing levels, staff time, funding amounts for textbooks and supplies, selection of new equipment (particularly technology), and support for new or renovated facilities. The authors review current practices at each important decision-making level in school districts, from the school board to the classroom. At each juncture, the findings are interpreted to reveal both the causes of the practices and their implications for improving school effectiveness. This book provides new research in helping to inform and improve resource allocation practices in schools. The general conclusion is that improvement in the resource allocation practices in education requires a shift in focus to results instead of inputs, a strong emphasis on student learning as the primary focus of decisions, and systematic evaluation of results.