The names of operating systems and devices have been on the lips of unlikely people lately. In this day and age, superintendents, state commissioners of education, and even state legislators certainly should understand and care about technical details, but the author is just not used to hearing such things from them. The reason for the…

Institutions build armies of alumni advocates to influence legislators and shape public opinion. This article describes two types of alumni advocacy: grasstops and grassroots. Grasstops advocacy engages smaller, targeted groups of alumni who have a stronger, more influential connection with legislators and other public officeholders. Grassroots…

As more and more cities and states diversify the educational options available to parents and students, creating magnet, open-enrollment, small school, career and technical, charter, and private school opportunities, educational choice markets need to become a part of the regulation conversation. In this report, Mike McShane examines the…

The ACTE National Policy Seminar (NPS) is a time for Association of Career and Technical Education (ACTE) members to meet with Members of Congress or their staff, hear from high-ranking officials in various levels of government, attend educational sessions, network with fellow ACTE members and more. In this article, the authors provide their…

At the beginning of every school year at Park Forest Elementary School (PFE), it is customary for teachers to invite their students to participate in establishing guidelines for behavior and citizenship in their respective classrooms. Teacher Lorraine McGarry and principal Donnan Stoicovy began the 2012-13 school year, however, by taking this…

Children born since the early 1990s have never known a world in which computer and information technologies are not essential to every aspect of their lives. However, far too many young people, especially low-income and minority youth, lack opportunities to learn about the impact of computer and information technologies on their lives and become…

Just 18 minutes before the midnight signing deadline on May 15, 2010, Minnesota state legislators breathed a sigh of relief. Their bipartisan pension reform legislation, which passed both chambers by large margins and aimed to help shore up a potentially failing pension system, had just escaped a veto threat. Under pressure from his Republican…

Now, perhaps more than ever, communicating with legislators is essential to safeguarding the education profession and promoting the well-being of the children and families with whom teachers work. Yet, this task is not always an easy one, primarily because legislators and teachers work in different environments and speak different professional…

When American Association of School Administrators (AASA) and other membership organizations try to engage individuals in advocacy, a frequent exhortation is "Contact your representatives in Congress." Professional membership groups also stress that written communication is more powerful than phone calls to a representative's office, and they…

Education advocates and the Obama administration are anxiously eyeing a series of across-the-board cuts set to hit a broad swath of federal domestic and military spending programs early next year, unless a sharply divided Congress can agree on a long-term plan to put the nation's fiscal house in order. Most education lobbyists expect such a deal…

The author of this article expands the background theory of voting to incorporate the undergraduate majors of members of Congress. Examining nine votes on trade across the 109th and 110th Congresses reveals that economics majors are the only category of college major to vote in favor of free trade in a predictable way. Controls for a variety of…

This article elaborates on parent advocacy groups, a key component in meeting the needs of gifted children. The case for parent groups couldn't be stronger--or more urgent. According to Nancy Green, Executive Director of the National Association for Gifted Children, "Quality gifted education exists in places where there are strong parent groups."…

This manual was designed primarily for use by individuals with developmental disabilities and related conditions. It is hoped that it is also useful for families, as well as service coordinators and providers who directly assist families and individuals with developmental disabilities. The focus of this manual is to provide easy-to-read…

As state legislatures go to work this year, one of the overriding questions is whether 2012 will bring a reprise of last year's frenzied work on education--much of it shepherded by newly elected Republican majorities and governors--or whether elected officials will take a more deliberate and cautious approach. Last year, many governors and…

Educators are obliged to stand up for children--to point out when the self-declared local "education emperor" (or mayor or governor) has no clothes. The so-called reform government has turned some local districts into a Wild West where schools share no common or sequential curriculum and all that matters is test scores. Music educators must join…