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Campaign for Educational Equity
Safeguarding Students' Educational Rights
Students' Constitutional Right to a Sound Basic Education: New Yorks State's Unfinished Agenda
The four-part report series listed below is designed to help guide elected officials, the board of Regents, and the New York State Education Department in moving New York toward providing all children the essential educational opportunities guaranteed by state law.
Part 1: A Roadmap to Constitutional Compliance Ten Years after CFE v. State
Authors: Michael A. Rebell and Jessica R. Wolff
Published: November 2016
An overview of the three specific proposals, each listed below, designed as a roadmap to help guide elected officials, the Board of Regents, and the New York State Education Department in moving New York toward providing all children the essential educational opportunities guaranteed by law.
Part 2: Filling the Regulatory Gaps
Authors: Michael A. Rebell and Jessica R. Wolff, with Joseph R. Rogers, Jr., and Matthew Saleh
Published: November 2016
This article is the first of three proposals in CEE's article series entitled, Students' Constitutional Right to a Sound Basic Education: New York State's Unfinished Agenda. Filling the Regulatory Gaps outlines the revisions to education regulations needed for constitutional compliance.
Part 3: Utilizing a Constitutional Cost Methodology
Authors: Michael A. Rebell and Jessica R. Wolff
Published: November 2016
This article is the second of three proposals in CEE's article series entitled, Students' Constitutional Right to a Sound Basic Education: New York State's Unfinished Agenda. Utilizing a Constitutional Cost Methodology presents an innovative new method for calculating education costs.
Part 4: Ensuring Resource Accountability
Authors: Jessica R. Wolff and Michael A. Rebell, with Joseph R. Rogers, Jr.
Published: November 2016
This article is the third and final proposal in CEE's article series entitled, Students' Constitutional Right to a Sound Basic Education: New York State's Unfinished Agenda. Ensuring Resource Accountability spells out the mechanisms needed to monitor and enforce the provision of constitutionally required educational resources.
A New Constitutional Cost Methodology for Determining the Actual Cost of a Sound Basic Education
Authors: Michael A. Rebell, Henry M. Levin, Robert Shand, and Jessica R. Wolff
Published: September 2016
This article presents a constitutional cost methodology with clear standards for both "input" and "outcome" criteria, taking full account of the needs of students living in poverty, English language learners, and students with disabilities, and systematically considers cost effectiveness.
Setting the Record Straight: The Truth About School Funding in New York State
Authors: Michael A. Rebell and Jessica R. Wolff
Published: February 2014
It is important to separate rhetoric and reality in today's debates over school funding. To help New Yorkers participate in this important discussion,CEE provides some facts to dispel some current school-funding myths.
Safeguarding the Right to a Sound Basic Education in Times of Fiscal Constraint
Published: Albany Law Review, Volume 75, Number 4, June 2012
Reviewing Resources: An Assesment of the Availbility of Basic Educational Resources in High-Needs New York City Schools
Author(s): Jessica R. Wolff, Joseph R. Rogers, Jr., and Jaunelle Pratt
Published: The Campaign for Educational Equity, March 2012
Reviewing Resources is a preliminary report for the Campaign for Educational Equity's Safeguarding Sound Basic Education project. Based on interviews with school personnel from 34 high-needs New York City schools, the research highlights serious gaps in schools' ability to provide suitable curricula for all students, appropriate supports for struggling students, resources for improving teacher quality and a safe, orderly environment for learning.
Essential Resources: The Constitutional Requirements for Providing All Students in New York State the Opportunity for a Sound Basic Educations
Author(s): Michael Rebell, with assistance provided by Jessica R. Wolff and Joseph R. Rogers, Jr.
In absence of an existing framework to assess the state’s compliance with the court order in Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) v. State of New York, which guarantees all students the right to an adequate education, the Campaign’s first report creates an operational definition for sound basic education. Drawing on relevant state statutes, regulations and judiciary requirements, Essential Resources focuses on eight specific areas to which students are constitutionally entitled, including qualified teachers, services for “at-risk students” and students with disabilities, class sizes, and instrumentalities of learning.
Deficient Resources: An Analysis of the Availability of Basic Educational Resources in High-Need Schools in New York School Districts
Author(s): Michael A. Rebell, Jessica R. Wolff, and Joseph R. Rogers, Jr.
Published: The Campaign for Educational Equity, December 10, 2021
Courts and Kids: Pursuing Educational Equity Through the State Courts
Author: Michael A. Rebell
Published: 2009
While federal courts have dramatically retreated, state courts have taken up the mantle of promoting the vision of educational equity originally articulated in Brown v. Board of Ed. This is the first detailed analysis of why the state courts have taken on this role and how successful their efforts have been.
Available at: The University of Chicago Press