School goals and school costs

[George Sheridan <learn@jps.net>]

"We admit we have an achievement gap, and that achievement gap is 
unacceptable," state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell 
said in late March, announcing. a major project to bring together 
specialists from around the country to conduct 20 studies of the state 's 
K-12 public school system. "We need a clear idea of what it 's going to 
cost to meet the different educational needs of our very diverse student 
population."

The study will be headed by Stanford University and funded by $2.6 million 
from four philanthropies: the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the 
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation and the 
Stuart Foundation.

The studies are expected to be concluded by the end of the year and are to 
give state officials recommendations on how to reform the educational 
system, whether the monies allocated are sufficient and whether the 
allocations are handed out across the state in a fair manner. Stanford 
educational economist Susanna Loeb will lead the project, which will 
include researchers from 17 different research institutions and schools 
including the Rand Corporation,USC, UC Berkeley, San Diego State and the 
University of Pennsylvania.

Ted Mitchell, head of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger 's advisory committee 
on education, says the scope of the study is beyond what has ever been 
attempted. "There really is no marker in the history of school reform for 
this kind of collaborative, bipartisan, independent research," he told the 
Los Angeles Times. Mitchell is the former President of Occidental College.


George Sheridan
Northside School
Cool, California 95614