This article outlines parents' struggle to secure adequate educational resources for their child(ren) with special educational needs within the Irish State system. The authors challenge the view that legislation facilitates practical advances that are meaningful to individual families. This small-scale exploratory study reports the findings from…

A growing number of states and local schools across the country have adopted educator evaluation and accountability programs based on the use of student test scores and value-added models (VAM). A wide array of potential legal issues could arise from the implementation of these programs. This article uses legal analysis and social science evidence…

The Doe case is unique in that it demands judicial recognition of minimum standards for an "effective" education. The author suggests that the enforcement of standards reflecting those skills necessary for a useful existence is necessary. (LBH)

The author examines the legal context of student consumerism and concludes that while recent court cases have granted more extensive constitutional rights to students in public colleges, for academic grievances, including the quality of institutional services, students receive little support from legal precedent. (Editor/JT)

One of the most serious impediments to the development of high quality education in the United States is excessive legalism. This legalism takes two forms: administrative legalism is the trend toward ritualistic conformity to increasingly detailed, bureaucratic rules and regulations; judicial legalism is the tendency to cast all social issues and…

The challenges in improving and sustaining success of children from multicultural backgrounds with disabilities in urban school districts manifest themselves in the contextual dynamics of legal, accountability, demographic, and fiscal terrains. Within each of these areas, educational leaders must solve existing problems of underservicing,…

The quality of education being offered by institutions of higher education is being questioned. Trends toward educational quality are evident by court cases that are cited; the issue has been school finance. The equal protection clause of the Constitution has been extended to apply to several areas through the idea of "fundamental rights." The…

This document reports the proceedings of a 1985 conference on preventing the legal problems that could grow out of the implementation of career ladder and merit pay programs for teachers. The contents of the report include a welcome by Preston C. Kronkosky; an overview by Virginia Koehler of the goals, characteristics, and demands of career ladder…

Discusses the role of the courts in educational policymaking and educational quality improvement. It examines the courts' success in using state constitutions to mandate educational policy, the influence of the Goals 2000 initiative in school financing, the factors attributed to the state's increased legal exposure, and the court's impact in…

This paper summarizes events leading to the interdistrict settlement of the St. Louis (Missouri) school desegregation case. Remarks are focused on four points: (1) an overview of the settlement process and rationale, (2) an explanation of the principal provisions, (3) a brief analysis of the implementation process, and (4) a discussion of the…

This paper presents an examination of case law on faculty tenure and promotion as they are affected by institutional financial exigency and an examination of case law on personnel and faculty evaluation. An opening section reviews growing demands for accountability in higher education including legislatively mandated assessment of faculty and of…