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What Brain Research Can Teach About Cutting School Budgets

By: Karen D. Olsen

Foreword by Susan Kovalik

Make objective budget-cutting decisions that will truly impact student achievement!

In tough economic environments, budget cutting is a daunting but necessary task for school administrators. Karen D. Olsen takes an exciting, unique approach by applying brain research to budgeting to make the decision-making process more objective. Providing a strategy-builder chart, this book:

Offers action items for using analytical thinking in school budgeting
Helps leaders determine where money should be reinvested or reallocated
Provides specific tips for working within a group decision-making setting
Includes more than 30 analytical charts to aid in gathering needed information

Full description

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Product Details

Grade Level: PreK-12, Elementary, Secondary
ISBN: 9781412980494
Published By: Corwin
Year: 2010
Page Count: 224
Publication date: January 07, 2013

Price: $41.95

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Description

"Karen Olsen has put budget topics into perspective so that school administrators can make decisions based on what is best for children, not what is easiest and most efficient for adults. This book is a powerful guide in helping our principals see through the fog of mandates, policies, and red tape and get to the priority of students!"
—Terri Patterson, Director of Elementary Education
Waco Independent School District, TX

"This book boldly asserts that brain research should be applied wherever human brains are working. Not only can and should brain research inform how and what we teach in the classroom, it should be brought to bear in boardrooms and the school budgeting process as well."
—Linda Jordan, Associate Professor
Hope College

Make objective budget-cutting decisions that will truly impact student achievement!

In tough economic environments, budget cutting is a daunting but necessary task for many school administrators. Karen D. Olsen takes an exciting, unique approach by applying brain research to budgeting. Now educators can make the decision-making process more objective by using analytical thinking in school budgeting rather than responding to emotion, tradition, or outside influences. Providing a strategy-builder chart, this book

Offers action items for putting the strategies into practice
Helps leaders determine where money should be reinvested or reallocated
Provides specific tips for working within a group decision-making setting
Includes more than 30 analytical charts to aid in gathering needed information

What Brain Research Can Teach About Cutting School Budgets offers principals and district leaders a methodical process for taking subjectivity out of the budgeting process.

Key features

A Strategy-Builder Chart helps leaders analyze where dollars might be cut and determine where money should be reinvested to increase student achievement in a cost-effective way
Action Items in each chapter guide leaders through the budget-cutting process and provide specific tips for working within a group decision-making setting
Brain-research summaries in each chapter highlight the essential findings that connect with decisions faced by school leaders
End-of-chapter Action Summary Checklists provide a quick reference allowing leaders to review their work
Sources for further research and detailed endnotes present opportunities for further reading on brain research and budgeting

Author(s)

Karen D. Olsen

Karen D. Olsen is author, co-author, and contributing editor of two dozen books focusing on using brain research to create schoolwide change. Her most recent book, What Brain Research Can Teach Us About Cutting School Budgets, is also published by Corwin Press. Her experience includes serving as executive director of the Mid-California Science Improvement Program (MCSIP), a ten-year effort funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to improve science education using the ITI/HET model. She also served as executive director of the Bay Area Middle School Program, a project to create model middle schools. Olsen was one of the original founders of the California Institute of School Improvement, a non-profit organization designed to support schools and districts in a wide range of school change issues. As program director, she conducted seminars on a range of topics including implications of recent legislation, schoolwide planning and program quality review processes, and the role of mentor teachers as change agents. Addtional experience includes planning and development for the California State Department of Education.

Table of Contents

Foreword by Susan Kovalik

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Where to $tart

Attitude Is Important

Action Items

Resources

Endnotes

Action Summary Checklist

2. Instruction: Tools

A Brief Summary

Action Items

Brain Research

Resources

Endnotes

Action Summary Checklist

3. Instruction: Organization and Use of Time

Optimizing Organization and Use of Time

Action Items

Brain Research

Resources

Endnotes

Action Summary Checklist

4. Staffing

Action Items

Brain Research

Resources

Endnotes

Action Summary Checklist

5. Professional Development

Professional Development Is a Survival Imperative

Action Items

Brain Research

Resources

Endnotes

Action Summary Checklist

6. The Inseparable Bodybrain Learning Partnership: Movement and Aerobic Exercise

Movement to Enhance Learning

Action Items

Resources

Myths Versus Brain Facts

Endotes

Action Summary Checklist

7. The Inseparable Bodybrain Learning Partnership: Emotion

Impact of Emotion as Gatekeeper to Learning and Performance

Action Items

Resources

Endnotes

Action Summary Checklist

8. Double-Link Curriculum for Two-Step Learning: Link One

A Context for Content

Content for Link-One Curriculum

Action Task 1: Analyze Your Curriculum for Age Appropriateness

Action Task 2: Analyze How Well Your Standards Enhance Pattern Seeking

Resources

Endnotes

Action Summary Checklist

9. Double-Link Curriculum for Two-Step Learning: Link Two

Link-Two Content

Action Items

Resources

Endnotes

Action Summary Checklist

10. Testing: Does the Emperor Wear Clothes?

What Do Tests Test?

Standardized Tests Don't Test Learning

Where and What to Cut

Homegrown Isn't Necessarily Better

Action Items

Resources

Endotes

Action Summary Checklist

Appendix A: Pattern Seeking

Appendix B: Developing Programs

Appendix C: Age Appropriateness

Glossary

List of Figures

About the Author

References

Index

Reviews

"Karen Olsen has put budget topics into perspective so that school administrators can make decisions based on what is best for children, not what is easiest and most efficient for adults. We used this book in our district with all our principals and it was a powerful guide in helping them see through the fog of mandates, policies, and red tape and get to the priority of students!"

Terri Patterson, Director of Elementary Education
Waco Independent School District, TX

"I’m very pleased to see a book bold enough to assert that the realm of brain research should be applied to wherever human brains are working and whatever challenges we face. Not only can and should brain research inform how and what we teach in the classroom, but it should be brought to bear in boardrooms and the school budgeting process. This book is brilliant and groundbreaking. Every school in America should have a copy in its professional library."

Linda Jordan, Associate Professor
Hope College

"Olsen addresses a current national issue with a focus on budget deficits and identifying a process for making decisions about budget cuts. This is definitely a different and unusual approach to budget cutting—a compelling contribution to the field."

Laurie Emery, Principal
Old Vail Middle School, Vail, AZ

"The entire nation is struggling with budget cuts, and this book is a very practical guide, a guide that has longevity and can be used time and time again with the same profound results. I would recommend this text as a must-read for anyone affected by budget cuts in education."

Lyndon Oswald, Principal
Sandcreek Middle School, Idaho Falls, ID

Other Titles in: Finance/Funding/Grantwriting | Principalship | Superintendents & District Administration

Select Format:

For Instructors

Request Review Copy

When you select 'request review copy', you will be redirected to Sage Publishing (our parent site) to process your request.