Links

General Interest Links

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools

The Civil Right Project - (formerly The Harvard Civil Rights Project) Excellent source of research on desegregation, dropouts, diversity, special education, and more.

National Academy of Education - Source of research reports and summaries including "Race-Conscious Policies for Assigning Students to Schools: Social Science Research and the Supreme Court Cases"

Education Action! - Jonathan Kozol's network of teachers and activists for justice in public schools

Swann Fellowship

Council for Children's Rights

CMS Equity Committee Reports

Fifth Annual Report of the CMS Equity Committee to the Board of Education and Superintendent Peter Gorman, 2007

CMS Equity Committee - 2006 Report
CMS Equity Committee - 2005 Pupil Assignment PrioritiesCMS Equity Committee - 2004 Report
CMS Equity Committee - Budget Suggestions 2004
CMS Equity Committee - Initial 2003 Report

Annenberg Institute for School Reform
Wonderful resource for articles on high school reform, equity, and weighted student funding.
Voices in Urban Education newsletter (VUE Archive)
- Issue on Equity & Excellence

Class Size Research

HEROS - Excellent resource for class size research

Reduce Class Size Now - Advocacy tips, research, answers to critics, and more

Weighted Student Funding Articles

League of Women Voters of Charlotte-Mecklenburg's research report on Weighted Student Funding, March 2007.

Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University article First Steps to a Level Playing Field - An Introduction to Student-Based Budgeting
- This is an excellent introduction to the challenges of weighted student funding.

Metro Organizations for People (MOP) published a pamphlet about the benfits of a weighted formula. Note - their formula includes actual teacher salaries.

Fund the Child - Organization devoted to the promotion of weighted student funding.
- This group sees WSF as an alternative to the "65% Solution" under discussion nationally. The 65% refers to the proposed mandate that 65% of every education dollar be spent in the classroom.
- This group promotes charter schools receive weighted funds. See "The Choice Challenge"
- They acknowledge that schools with concentrations of needy children may need additional funds.

Decentralized Decision Making for Schools - Rand Corporation. This report considers WSF as an essential aspect of school based decision making.

Achievement Gap Articles

Subverting Swann: Tracking as Second Generation Segregation in Charlotte, North Carolina, Roslyn Mickelson, 2001

Recent Research on the Achievement Gap
How lifestyle factors and classroom culture affect black-white differences
An Interview with Ronald Ferguson, Harvard Education Letter, Nov/Dec 2006

NC Justice Center March 2006 Report: The Achievement Gap Revisited