(a) "cost-effectiveness" shall mean one or more measures of the efficient use of school district resources relative to school performance in accordance with state educational standards, as determined by the department.

(b) "cost-effective practices" shall mean those practices which most efficiently use limited resources to produce a particular outcome or set of outcomes in accordance with state educational standards.

(c) "board" shall mean the board of regents of the state of New York. 2. The board and the commissioner shall wherever practicable promote cost-effectiveness and cost-effective practices in the public elementary and secondary schools and boards of cooperative educational services of the state. As part of the effort pursuant to this section, by January first, nineteen hundred ninety-eight and periodically thereafter, the commissioner shall (a) identify current structures, policies, laws and regulations which hinder cost-effectiveness in schools and school districts; (b) identify cost-effective districts by determining which schools or school districts have demonstrated significant achievement or improvement relative to resource allocation in such areas as student performance, instruction, management, business administration, early childhood education and such other areas as the board deems appropriate; (c) identify cost-effective action, policies, practices and programs which may be successfully replicated in other school districts; and (d) recommend or, to the extent feasible, develop specific cost-effective ways in which to encourage, recognize and reward academic improvement and success in school districts, and remove existing penalties and fiscal disincentives to such improvement or success. 3. The commissioner shall consult with school district administrators, district superintendents and superintendents of schools, teachers, school board members, parents, students, non-pedagogical school support personnel, representatives from post-secondary institutions and other pertinent groups and individuals in determining cost-effective programs pursuant to subdivision two of this section. 4. The commissioner shall disseminate information to school district administrators, school board members and other interested parties on how cost-effective practices can be used and applied in school districts, individual schools and the classroom. Such information shall include a summary of exemplary cost-effective practices among school districts receiving apportionments pursuant to subparagraph one of paragraph h of subdivision fourteen of section thirty-six hundred two of this chapter.