N.Y.C. School-Based Budgeting Linked to Test-Score Gains

By Debra Viadero

A "quiet but radical" overhaul has transformed the New York City public schools from a top-down to a bottom-up management system—and seems to have improved student achievement in the bargain, a study concludes.

Researchers from New York University's Institute for Education and Social Policy spent five years tracking the progress of New York's long-running experiment with "performance-driven budgeting." The idea behind the system, which was been tried around the country in one form or another with mixed success, was to move control of the purse strings from the central administration to the city's local districts and schools.

In the nation's largest school system, the move to performance-based budgeting began in 1997, under then-Schools Chancellor Rudolph F. Crew. Six mostly low-income community school districts volunteered to test the approach, but two-thirds of the city's elementary and middle schools and 22 of the city's 32 community districts use...