During the fall of 2012, the Donnell-Kay Foundation surveyed the state's superintendents and charter network leaders to better understand the principalship in Colorado today. Some key findings of the survey are presented in this report. The findings include perceptions that there is a shortage of quality leaders to run Colorado's schools, that the…

For children to be successful, schools must provide a safe and secure environment in which teachers can teach and students can learn (Skiba & Sprague, 2008). In California, state regulations require that schools maintain an appropriate school climate on campus, in classrooms, and at school sponsored events (California Education Code 35294).…

While alcohol remains the drug of choice among college students, marijuana ranks number two with 32 percent reporting using marijuana in 2008. That's a modest decline from 2001, when 36 percent of college students reported marijuana use. While levels of marijuana use by students are determined through a number of national and local surveys, no…

On May 14, 2010, Sandra K. Soto was the faculty convocation speaker for the University of Arizona College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. To a significant extent, she congratulated the parents and graduates and flattered the graduates by crediting them with having learned both skills and information, and urging graduates to make use of their…

Authors examine the proportion of undergraduate applications, admissions, and enrollments preceding, during, and after Proposition 209 while accounting for the relative growth in University of California eligibility for underrepresented minorities (URMs). They employed standard deviation analyses to measure dispersion of the URMs to non-URMs.…

The historic 2008 presidential election provided unprecedented opportunities to engage young people in civic education--including heated classroom debates on contentious issues, social studies lessons on the electoral process, and opportunities to volunteer for national and local campaigns. Civic engagement can take many forms, including…

The Thompson School District recognized after the Columbine incident in the spring of 1999 that it was lacking an adequate plan for crisis response. Colorado legislation led to a mandate for having a crisis response plan so the district purchased a "canned" crisis response plan that served the needs of response in a very immediate but…

In the mid-1990s, a pair of Canadian researchers videotaping children on playgrounds made a simple observation that helped shift experts' views about bullying: When children bullied other children, they rarely did it alone. Research now suggests that bullies, their victims, bystanders, parents, teachers, and other adults in the building are all…

Under incapacitation theory, higher incarceration rates are expected to correlate with accelerated reductions in crime. California's contemporary incarceration patterns offer an opportunity to analyze the validity of this theory, particularly as it applies to young people. This study focuses on California's juvenile incarceration and crime trends…

This document presents a summary of the larger report "Discipline Policies, Successful Schools, and Racial Justice." State legislation is an important lever for improving the equity of student discipline policies. However, states vary tremendously, and only some provide accurate public reports on school discipline, support effective…

This year Indiana joined over a dozen other states in adopting Friedman's principles by passing what many believe to be the most comprehensive school choice program in the country. With the enactment of three key bills (HEA 1001, HEA 1003, and HEA 1004), Indiana parents may now take advantage of a school expenditure tax deduction, school…

State immunization laws necessitate compliance for students enrolling in a public or private school system. In support of state laws, school nurses expend hours to achieve immunization compliance with school-age children. For the purpose of creating a more efficient system, researchers implemented an educational and incentive program in local…

A newly signed law in Georgia that gives the governor the power to remove school board members in a district that does not have full accreditation is bringing fresh scrutiny to the role of AdvancED, a private agency that accredits schools in that state and 48 others. The target of the new law, signed by Gov. Nathan Deal, is the 48,000-student…

This article provides an overview of the "Schools of the Future" initiative introduced in California in January 2011 by the newly elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tom Torlakson. Its objective is to focus on the reform of the state school facility programme and to design highperforming, "greener" schools.…

Kentucky is a poor, relatively rural state that contrasts greatly with the relatively urban and wealthy states typically the subject of education studies employing large-scale administrative data. For this reason, Kentucky's experience of major school finance and curricular reform is highly salient for understanding teacher labor market dynamics.…