| accountability | Holding schools and teachers responsible for student performance.
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| adequate education | Provides a legal approach for ensuring educational opportunities for poorer students based on state constitution guarantees for an efficient, thorough, or uniform education. Calls for adequate education have replaced previous calls for equal educational expenditures.
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| block grants | Federal dollars provided to the states, with limited federal restrictions, for educational aid and program funding.
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| bond | A certificate of debt issued by a government guaranteeing payment of the original investment plus interest by a specified future date. Bonds are used by local communities to raise the funds they need to build or repair schools.
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| categorical grant | Financial aid to local school districts from state or federal agencies for specific purposes.
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| chief state school officer | The executive head of a state department of education. The chief state school officer is responsible for carrying out the mandates of the state board of education and enforcing educational laws and regulations. This position is also referred to as state superintendent.
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| consolidation | The trend toward combining small or rural school districts into larger ones.
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| decentralization | The trend of dividing large school districts into smaller and, it is hoped, more responsive units.
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| delegate representative | Form of representative government in which the interests of a particular geographic region are represented through an individual or "delegate." Some school boards are organized so that members act as delegates of a neighborhood or region.
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| hidden government | The unofficial power structure within a school. It cannot be identified by the official title, position, or functions of individuals. For example, it reflects the potential influence of a school secretary or custodian.
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| property tax | Local real estate taxes (also cars and personal property) historically used to fund local schools.
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| Robin Hood laws | As a result of court actions, many states are redistributing revenue from wealthier to poorer communities to equalize educational funding, a process not unlike the efforts of the hero of Sherwood Forest.
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| site-based (school-based) management | The recent trend in education reform that stresses decision making on the school level. In the past, school policies were set by the state and the districts. Now the trend is for individual schools to make their own decisions and policies.
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| state board of education | The state education agency that regulates policies necessary to implement legislative acts related to education.
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| state department of education | An agency that operates under the direction of the state board of education, accrediting schools, certifying teachers, appropriating state school funds, and so on.
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| superintendent of schools | The executive officer of the local school district.
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| trustee representatives | This conception of a school board member's role differs from the delegate approach, as members are viewed as representatives of the entire community, rather than representing the narrower interests of a particular group or neighborhood.
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