The last several years has seen an increasingly popular trend of teachers buying and selling their lesson plans and other self-created classroom materials in online marketplaces. The leader in this space is a website called Teachers Pay Teachers, which boasts 3.8 million active users. In this article, the author examines why these sites became…

It's a challenge for schools in every country: How to provide the right kind of discipline and create a climate that nurtures learning. This challenge may look different in different countries. A school's disciplinary climate not only is the product of educators' beliefs and actions, students' beliefs and actions, and the interaction of these, but…

In Harper v. Poway Community Unified School District, the Ninth Circuit Court ruled that a student could not wear a T-shirt to school bearing a statement that homosexual behavior is shameful. The court did not use the usual rationale, that such speech could disrupt school activities, but instead relied on the notion that such statements could…

Despite the 1998 Children's Online Privacy Act's supposed protections, most web sites still collect personal information and post no privacy statements. Internet-filtering software packages are described and suggestions given for creating a safe environment, dismantling "cookies," informing parents and teachers, and checking…

The term "parental rights" has assumed a new, potentially disruptive meaning. Instead of working collaboratively to address their concerns and differences, some parents desire the right to use courts to sue schools to get their way. Colorado and Virginia parental rights legislation was recently defeated, but a federal bill affirming…

Supreme Court has delineated three-step test to First Amendment cases brought by public employees, including tenured and nontenured teachers' academic freedom cases. Is teacher's conduct "protected expression" that concerns public issue without unduly rocking boat? If so, is protected expression the motivation behind district's adverse…

Students are confused about sexual harassment restrictions in schools. Sexual harassment should be viewed as a civil rights violation or a form of social injustice. A whole-school approach demands that teachers plan for teachable moments through the curriculum, all staff receive adequate inservice training, and compassionate responses (referrals…

Reviews research on the impact of zero-tolerance policies on student behavior and achievement. Concludes that policies are generally ineffective and often counterproductive. (Contains 14 references.) (PKP)

Discusses the history of corporal punishment in American schools and recent developments which serve to project national opinions on the matter. (RK)

Threatening student web sites raise complex legal questions for schools. According to "Tinker v. Des Moines (1969), students' First Amendment rights must be abridged to ensure an orderly school environment. Recent litigation, educator rights, American Civil Liberties Union interventions, and legally defensible strategies for schools are…

For-profit charter-school managers may be removing the "public" from public education. A study of 11 Michigan charter schools showed that cost-cutting strategies are adversely affecting student transportation, special education, and the socioeconomic mix of students. Corporations' superimposed bureaucracies have eradicated educators'…