Behavior of a tumor detected by screening is to follow it forward in time. The best way to do that is with prospectivelycollecting registries, tumors that are annotated, the talk about the stage and what it looks like, we know what nutations they have, and in addition, how they were diagnosed. Screening tends to detect slowgrowing regions. Another area of research is how to best convey the underlying biology. Finally, working on ways to modify the terminology to better fit what we know about the biology. Kramer, thank you for your time. We go now to the center for American Progress here in washington, d. C. A look at the discretion of School District consolidation. The issues include funding, the economy, and Funding School systems. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2013] morning frome this the center for American Progress for the Panel Discussion on the effectiveness of School District consolidation. We expect the conversation to include education funding, economies of scale, and new funding systems. The center for American Progress has released a report on the issue. Brown, the educational vice policy president at the progress, american will monitor the event. Good morning and welcome to the center for American Progress. I am cynthia brown, Vice President for educational policy. Aank you for joining us for party but small group, but we know that you are deeply interested in the topic for today, our own port on School District size. Panelists for the participating today, contributing to our ongoing conversation about education reform. Across the nation, policy makers have begun to look at the fundamental design of our Education System. Our education governance structures were built in a different era, and in many states, little attention has been given to improving the organization and design the States Education systems. Over time, many states have allowed some exceedingly on governance systems to evolve. Nebraska, for example, there are a number of non districts School Districts that are non contiguous. In other words, nested like islands within the confines of other districts. We have been long interested in the issue of school governance, and a few years ago, we and the thomas Ford Institute join forces to tackle the issue of governance and ask how our system of k12 governments might be modernized. As part of a collaboration, we released a book and education governments in january and we are planning a never report over the coming years. This paper is also part of that cooperation and it focuses in particular on the issue of School District size. Timely, and many states and districts have recently been discussing consolidation efforts. In his 2011 budget address, ill. Pat quinn called for a commission to consider the number of School Districts in the state. As governor, ed rendell also pushed for consolidation in pennsylvania and proposed consolidating their 501 pat quinn called for a commission todistricts into 100. States including michigan and california have also discussed merging districts in recent years. We would like to talk more about these initiatives over the course of this event, but before i do, i would like to take a moment to introduce the panel. First we have charlie barone, policy director for democrats for education reform. He lives and grew up in new jersey and will give us a national and statelevel look at the issues. We are are also fortunate to have with us today doris terry williams. She is the executive director of the rule school and community trust. She was previously associate professor at North CarolinaCentral University school of education. Doris also led the institutions Teacher Education program. Now i would like to turn the podium over to my colleagues, a here. Fellow he is the author of todays report and will delve deeper into the study and explain the methodology behind the report. After he concludes, we will have a Panel Discussion and some questions about the report and the issue, and then we will open it up to the audience. Thank you. Thank you, cindy. I also want to thank Juliana Herman for the help that she provided on this report. She did a lot of Data Analysis and writing while she was here at the center. I also want to thank rob hanna, who also provided a lot of work on the report. He is not here with us today. I wanted to make sure that both of them got credit for their hard work. When it comes to education, not all spending is people. Some education dollars are spent for more productively than others. Some districts spend their resources well and show much higher levels of achievement than others. In this time of lagging revenues, policy makers have increasingly been paying attention to the question of whether or not were getting the most out of every school dollar. At the same time, we have an increased focus on governance. Part of the issue is that governance issues, structures, have led to haphazard spending configurations in states. In new jersey, for instance, one School District spends 50,000 per year to send their High School Students to another high school nearby. The issue is largely a governance one. In new jersey, over all, spending per student is 17,000. The two strings of work, productivity and government, have led us to ask, can we restructure our Education System in ways that might save money and increase student achievement . The debate over School District size goes back centuries. Efforts to reform small School Districts started in the early 19th century when education was highly localized and towns and cities were the major funders of schools. As states took responsibility for education, many chose to institutionalize town and city structures as local indication agencies. Dourly the early 20thcentury, the push to consolidate became more aggressive, and the result of these efforts between 1940 and today, the number of districts dropped dramatically just 14,000. To many areas race played a role in how districts consolidated in which did not. So did issues of wealth and poverty. Whatever the root cause is, it is clear, small districts today are not necessarily isolated. In illinois, 91 of the states 392 districts are classified as suburban. In new jersey, there are 138 suburban districts. Clear, smaller districts have higher costs. Why . Havene, small districts Smaller Schools and larger overhead expenses. Another issue is they have to provide students with a full courses, even if there are fewer students. This could mean hiring a chemistry teacher for only four students. This problem is highlighted in states such as colorado where school courses, districts have n average a teacher india teacher to student ratio of 16 to 1. There is no easy answer to the problem of small districts. For a long time, policymakers have been focused on consolidation. Our report tries to put national and statebystate estimates on the scope of these problems. Let me explain how we approached it to give you the sense of our methodology. We relied on cost estimate usedes produced and we these and studies to create a ct curve, and then average a teacher india we ao expenditures in the 2010 school year, the most recent available. Another way to think about it, if a School District has 750 students and the additional costs associated with that was we would them to 1000, say that they had a loss of potential cost, and then the per d it out for people expenditure. These are not firm numbers. There are shortcomings with our methought methodology that i am happy to talk about in the q a, but what we wanted to highlight was this issue. The other thing i want to is an optimal there size of School Districts. Most researchers put its between 2000 and 4000 students. We made sure to exclude rural districts. We used census code to do that because they wanted to highlight a lost capacity of School Districts that could function in a more productive way. Based on these calculations and the research, we uncover the following. Small nonremote districts may represent as much as 1 billion in unnecessary cost. Costs weretes, these relatively large. In new jersey, the estimated loss per capacity was about 100,000 per teacher. 10 states account for 650 million in lost cost. Smallistence of districts is hardly universal. In new york, we found the states small nonremote districts represent almost 100 million in lost cost. In illinois, the estimate is more than 90 million. In other states like maryland and florida, with larger districts, there was no lost cost associated with small districts. To address the problem of small districts, we present a number of recommendations, fully aware that there is not one of my solution here. We recommend states should generally avoid one size fits all approach is to maximizing district size. The report finds that is an optl many districts suffer from lost capacity due to their small size but there is no easy solution to the problem. The best solution for one district may not be the best for another. The evidence also suggests policy makers should take more into account the context of local districts and their needs. We also recommend states and districts reform their School Management systems. We believe policymakers should create Management System that are flexible on inputs and strict on outcomes. States and districts should also take the opportunity to rethink the role the School Districts play in our Education System. Finally, we recommend states and districts consider regionalization and the sharing of services and resources where possible. States can ease the burden of small districts through the creation of statesupported Education Service agencies to increase overall productivity. I will turn to the panel now to discuss this more in detail. I am happy to answer any questions you might have. We want to talk about small we want to expand the conversation into what i would call legitimately small districts, which are these more isolated, rural areas. Who do you identify as your constituents . Rural, we used to 43 andcodes 40, 41, those are School Districts that are geographically apart from urban centers. Some are considered remote and isolated. Others are small towns. Certainly, not those clustered around big metropolitan areas. No. Inthat is not the situation new jersey. Yourie, talk to us about new jersey experience . People like me think of new jersey as a suburb of new york or philadelphia you do not think of Bruce Springsteen . [laughter] i had an aunt and uncle on the shore, but i was able to get to the outer parts of new jersey. Now that i have installed in your state, could you talk about it . We are used to it. Actually, really nice in some places, but we play that down. Just think of the opening of the sopranos. This report got me thinking a lot about new jersey. It is a unique state. You do not have one large city that dominates the state, like you do in new york, illinois, california. You have a lot of smaller cities and a lot of small towns. Part of the reason for that is they are old. You have real communities, so it is different than what you have in virginia, maryland, places like arlington. They are not really towns, so they do not have the same identification. One thing that is different, you have a lot of tourist areas, particularly along the coast. They are dense in terms of housing, but the yearround residents, the number is very low. I was thinking about cape may county. I do not know what it costs them 50,000 to send their kids to a regional school, but there are not a lot of fulltime cape may residents who are there all year. In some ways, it may make sense to send their kids to the regional school. Further consolidation there may be limited because they are already going away to get this to this regional school, and they would have to go further if they would consolidate more. I am glad the report said you do not want a onesizefitsall solution, you want something that is tailored to the state and the goal of academic achievement. Where does consolidation fit into this . With capethe issue may, to get into that area. They are being charged that by the other School Districts. The other School District had a choice of six funding formulas they could choose from to charge cape may. This highlights the broader issue i am no expert on cape may but this issue of governance structures over all where you have a lot of these suburban k6 School Districts. With that comes a lot of additional costs. Back to your question, a lot of policy makers recently have been looking to the issue of consolidation. We have seen it in michigan, pennsylvania, illinois, and it seems like a onesizefitsall approach, but the evidence is mixed across research. You have a lot of destruction in communities when consolidation has been pushed down. A lot of additional cost with house School Districts that have to work with the buildings that are closed or shut down. So this argument is not necessarily that consolidation is necessarily the wrong approach is the wrong approach to take. When we have Consolidation First pushed, this was the 1950s, 1960s. Today we have the internet, which allows us to deliver education much more flexibly, we have a better sense of managing systems for performance. Increasearget is to student achievement. We knew this was a problem, but we need to think more broadly about how we can provide these districts with better support, whether it is regional cost saving measures or allow them greater flexibility around staffing, that allows them to take advantage of supports and capacities that are out there. Doris, i know that some of your members have been very concerned about consolidation. What is the landscape like . Is very diverse. It is difficult to say what is happening in Rural America in general. What we have found is, particularly in the south and southwest, rural School Districts have been consolidated almost to the hills. Very large districts in their role self. We think, to a large extent, we have reached the economies of scale in these communities. That makes sense for those communities. But what happens, for the most part, you do not achieve cost savings and the quality that most proponents of consolidation assume that you will achieve by consolidation. Particularly in the rural sites, you see it increased costs around transportation, lots more travel time for kids on buses, a much longer day. We have kids getting on the bus before daylight and they are getting off after sunset. When you factor those things into the formula of what is working, what should be the response to the small School Problem and i do not like to think of it as a small school or small district problem it is a situation that exists that does not have to be problematic. When we look at it in terms of dollars saved by increasing numbers and reducing costs, i think, that is also not the right perspective for all places. A focushave proposed is on place. When we think about the economies of scale, it is bigger than what the dollars are that you are spending to educate a child. What is happening in that total place, and how can partnerships and other kinds of strategies come together to have a greater impact. Looking at the dollars does not get at the quality and opportunities. What we are fighting also in rural places is we have been increased concentration of children in poverty, with special needs. The research has shown us over many years, all of these things contribute to higher cost. So the cost is not just about the numbers of kids in a building or district, but also about the needs of those kids. It is bigger than just the per people cost. Is consolidation an issue in new jersey . Two interesting things are happening that are affecting the mix. Christie first came in, he capped property taxes in new jersey, so he limited how much revenue a district could generate based on property tax structures. That was pressure from the state to consolidate things like Police Departments and schools. Every town wants its own Police Department and school system. The other thing that is interesting that is happening is there is an intradistrict Choice Program in new jersey that is up and running now. 6000 students in that program. Looking at some of the small School Districts in new jersey, one is the stockton borough School District, mercer county, the trenton area. School. K6 they have 54 students. 12 right now are coming from other parts of mercer county, primarily trenton. Next year they will have 17 more, so they will be between 25 and 30 of their students. In terms of numbers, not a huge impact, but it may be good policy if that could move to scale. Is in the top 5 of k6 schools in the state, whereas trenton is near the bottom. Schools, 16ementary of our primary schools, or they are focus schools, which means they have large achievement gaps. A lot of other dis