Recent decades have witnessed a proliferation of nationally organized school reform interest groups like StudentsFirst. While historically active at the state and federal levels, these organizations are increasingly involving themselves in local school board elections by recruiting candidates, making donations, and offering policy advice. However,…

Guided by perspectives on the sociopolitical contexts of schooling, control of teachers' curriculum and instruction, and teaching of elections, we use findings from a national questionnaire to explore the contexts that shaped teachers' pedagogical decision making following the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Our findings reveal that classroom,…

This exploratory article relies on qualitative data generated from observations and focus group interviews to investigate what motivates citizens to vote in school board elections and how they choose among candidates. Our review of literature suggests that capture theory, dissatisfaction theory, retrospective voting, partisanship, issue voting,…

A comparison of surveys of Texas State Teachers Association members in 1983, 1991, and 1996 yields information about trends in the average Texas teachers political profile and voting patterns. The profile developed from the 1996 survey of 700 teachers indicated that the average Texas teacher is female (86 percent), in her 40's (36 percent),…

This study identifies successful election strategies employed by community colleges in bond issues or tax levy increase elections, and distills these strategies into a list of principles or rules that can be utilized by colleges in preparing for such an event. Results of case studies conducted at Maricopa (Arizona), Santa Monica (California), and…