This volume focuses on school finance challenges in large urban school districts, fiscal accountability in these schools, and the fiscal dimensions of urban school reform. The 12 papers are (1) "School Finance and Urban Education Reform" (Christopher Roellke and Jennifer King Rice); (2) "Can Whole-School Reform Improve the Productivity of Urban Schools? The Evidence on Three Models" (Robert Bifulco); (3) "Whole School Reform and School-Based Budgeting in New Jersey: Three Years of Implementation" (Bari Anhalt Erlichson and Margaret Goertz); (4) "Balancing the Books: The Relationship between Fiscal Condition, Educational Output, and District Competition in the Metropolitan Districts of Minnesota" (Nicola Alexander); (5) "School Performance and Resource Use: The Role of Districts in New York City" (Patrice Iatarola, Leanna Stiefel, and Amy Ellen Schwartz); (6) "Teacher Attrition and Mobility in Urban Districts: Evidence from Wisconsin" (Jennifer Imazeki); (7) "Reducing Novice Teacher Attrition in Urban School Districts: Focusing on the Moving Target" (Neil Theobald and Robert S. Michael); (8) "The Adequacy of Urban Education: Focusing on Teacher Quality" (Whitney Allgood and Jennifer King Rice); (9) "Using Student Level Data to Measure School Finance Adequacy: An Exploratory Analysis" (Lawrence O. Picus, Jacquelyn McCroskey, Ed Robillard, Jane Yoo, and Lynne Marsenich); (10) "Private School Finance: Tugging on the Curtain" (Brian Brent); (11) "Private Money/Public Schools: Early Evidence on Private and Non-Traditional Support for New York City Public Schools" (Amy Ellen Schwartz, Hella Bel Hadj Amor, and Norm Fruchter); and (12) "Fiscal Policy in Urban Education: Lessons Learned and Implications for Research" (Jennifer King Rice and Christopher Roellke). (Chapters contain references.) (SM)