The Virginia Board of Education's "Student Conduct Policy Guidelines" were first developed in 1994 in response to action by the 1993 General Assembly requiring the Virginia Board of Education to establish such guidelines. In 2004, the "Guidelines" underwent a major revision in response to requirements of § 22.1-279.6. of the…

As schools, classrooms, and districts move toward more sophisticated instructional technologies to successfully implement higher college- and career-ready standards, educator-preparation programs must act quickly to equip future educators with the necessary skills to use technology effectively to personalize instruction and increase student…

The challenges facing public higher education are placing new demands and pressures on colleges and universities and those responsible for their governance and leadership. As higher education seeks to negotiate these and other 21st-century changes, the role of its "guardians" in stimulating change, supporting purposeful leadership, and…

Although implemented in 1975, the inclusion of students with special needs into the mainstream general education environment has taken a slow path. Now in an age where federal and state mandates affect the ways in which schools are run, the least restrictive environment mandate has been met with increasingly wide acceptance. In order for all…

"Stress factor" is defined as any internal or external influence that makes it more difficult for a school or district to carry out its basic mission of providing a high quality education to all its students, as well as to ensure that its students succeed on state and federal accountability measures. This report identifies 11 such stress…

In many states, high-achieving high school students have long had the ability to skip their senior year. Such policies enable motivated young people who fulfill graduation requirements to move on to college or a career--saving time and money for their families and society. A growing number of states are going further, with financial rewards for…

As states across the country face unprecedented budget shortfalls, communities as well as policymakers are trying to stave off the potentially devastating impacts of budget cuts on schools and other basic services. Many public school systems are facing significant shortfalls, forcing "reductions in force" or RIFs, of teachers and other school…

This issue of "Legislative Review" takes a look at what's new in higher education from March 14-18, 2011. This Legislative Review reports that: (1) HB 1018, the Department of Commerce budget bill, was heard in Senate Appropriations March 15; (2) HB 1106 was heard in Senate Education March 14, received a 7-0 "do not pass"…

Over the past three decades policymakers have been seeking new ways to secure improved performance from higher education institutions. One popular approach has been performance funding, which involves use of a formula to tie funding to institutional performance on specified indicators. This report reviews findings from studies on performance…

This article provides a comprehensive and current synthesis of the legislation, regulations, policy interpretations, and case law concerning students with traumatic and nontraumatic brain injury from pre-K to grade 12. The primary focus is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, but the scope extends to other applicable legal bases. The…

This study examines the transformation of Manitoba's post-secondary education system between 1967 and 2009 using legislative change to gauge structural change. The paper establishes the beginning of the contemporary post-secondary system with the 1967 decision of the Manitoba government to abandon the "one university" system model, a…

In the 1990s, teachers' and other educators' salaries increased enough to make Georgia number one in salaries in the South and solidly in the Midwest across the nation. Since 2004, school districts have been trying to make do with much less as this recession continues to force more cuts. Georgia has a very high unemployment rate of 10.25%, a high…

School administrators in California are getting greater flexibility in how they spend more than $300 million intended for instructional materials, along with encouragement to use some free digital textbooks for high school courses, as a result of cost-cutting measures brought on by the state's budget crisis. Extensive changes to the state's…

In 2008 Florida's Senate Bill No. 1716 was enacted, which replaced the Florida Community College System with the Florida College System and presented 9 out of the 28 community colleges with the option to transition to state colleges. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of Senate Bill No. 1716 and, in doing so, discuss the…

Background: Epidemic increases in childhood obesity and associated health risks are resulting in efforts to implement school policies related to nutrition and physical activity (NPA). With multicomponent policy efforts, challenges exist in characterizing the extent of policy change across the breadth of NPA policies. Methods: Aggregated policy…