The Education Policy Analysis Archives is a peer-reviewed
scholarly journal freely accessible on the internet at
http://epaa.asu.edu.

EPAA has just published Volume 9 Number 30 "Committing to
Class-Size Reduction and Finding the Resources to Implement It:
A Case Study of Resource Reallocation" by Allan Odden and
Sarah Archibald.

The article can be accessed directly at
         http://epaa.asu.edu/epaa/v9n30.html

An abstract follows:

          Committing to Class-Size Reduction and
          Finding the Resources to Implement It:
           A Case Study of Resource Reallocation

                       Allan Odden
             University of Wisconsin--Madison

                     Sarah Archibald
             University of Wisconsin--Madison

Abstract

This article discusses how a medium-sized school district in
Wisconsin was able to reallocate resources to reduce class
sizes in grades K-5 without spending more money or
increasing its tax rate.  Previous research on resource
reallocation found that the bulk of reallocated resources
were those supporting categorical program services.  This
district was able to use a different strategy.  As a growing
district, its marginal costs of adding an extra class of
students were much less than its average expenditures per
pupil, which were reimbursed by the state school finance
formula.  As the district grew, therefore, it acquired
excess revenues.  Also, by implementing full-day
kindergarten, the district acquired more excess revenues
because this added (0.5 pupil) X  (Number of kindergartners)
to its current enrollment, and the cost of educating these
students was less than the amount they received from the
state funding formula.  It then used these revenues to
reduce class sizes to between 15 and 20 in all Kindergarten
through grade 3 classrooms and to between 15 and 22 for
grades 4-5.

___________________________________________________
Gene V Glass,  Editor
Education Policy Analysis Archives
College of Education,  Arizona State University
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