Latino immigrant parents were interviewed in an urban California school district post Proposition 227. Approximately half had placed their English-learner children into bilingual classes. The others had children in English-only classes. Guided by sociohistorical psychology, the study explores the parents' motivations for the goal of preserving the…

In 1999, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) identified the need for national data on the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students and launched the first National School Climate Survey (NSCS). At the time, the school experiences of LGBT youth were under-documented and nearly absent from national…

During the past several years, there have been growing concerns regarding the effectiveness of school discipline policies, as well as their disproportionate impact on African American and Latino students. For at least a decade, questions have been raised about district-level "zero tolerance" policies that have contributed to larger…

This brief is a companion to the policy brief entitled, "Discipline Policies, Successful Schools and Racial Justice," which reviewed the research on disciplinary exclusion from school and made several recommendations, including the following three for seeking policy change through legislation: (1) Federal and state policy should require…

For lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or questioning (LGBTQ) students, school is rarely a safe space, much less an environment conducive to learning. Seventy-five percent of gay students report being verbally abused at school, and more than a third say they are physically harassed. And research shows that LGBTQ students are five times more…

In this article, the author argues that educational policymaking, teaching, and assessment are most effective and ethical when they are carried out with attention to local contexts. He explores this concept through a consideration of Nebraska's unique School-based, Teacher-led Assessment and Reporting System (STARS), which created a statewide…

"Alabama Education News" is published monthly except for June, July, and December by the Alabama Department of Education. This publication, authorized by Section 16-2-4 of the "Code of Alabama", as recompiled in 1975, is a public service of the Alabama Department of Education designed to inform citizens and educators about…

People have high regard for the arts, whatever the medium. From painting to the written word to performance and beyond, the arts help define people, both as individuals and as a society. And yet a strange dichotomy exists within one's society, where the arts are paid rhetorical respect even when they are not always adequately funded. Arts…

Child abuse and neglect is a serious problem across our nation, and the consequences can be far reaching. Laws were enacted to address child abuse and identify mandatory reporters, including school counselors. In the literature, school counselors regularly report systemic and personal obstacles that influence their compliance with the mandatory…

This paper explores whether the Canadian legislative protections in place to safeguard medical privacy meet the expectations of Canadians. An overview of current governance systems designed to protect the privacy of personal health information at both the federal and provincial levels is first presented. This is followed by an empirical analysis…

This article discusses the role and experience of queer youth and allies in the Fair Wisconsin campaign that fought against the marriage amendment to that state's constitution. It illustrates how LGBT and ally youth involvement can be incorporated into other organizations. Following an explanation of the campaign, are narratives of two…

Purpose: This research examined whether the removal of certification and other requirements led to larger or more diverse applicant pools for superintendent positions in Michigan. Michigan has not had any degree or certification requirements for educational administrators for many years and provided an empirical test of whether deregulation…

This article looks at various cases of the Supreme Court's most recent term. In contrast to the 2006-2007 term when the Supreme Court was regularly split 5-4, during this last term, the justices have formed surprising coalitions in cases considered highly controversial. For example, it was the so-called liberal bloc's Justice Stevens who wrote the…

Much of higher education's unease arises from the cost of dealing with illegal file sharing. Illinois State University, for example, calculated a cost of $76 to process a first claim of copyright infringement and $146 for a second. Responses range from simply passing along claims to elaborate programs architected with specific goals in mind.…

In this article, the authors present a typology for organizing our current knowledge regarding same-sex couples in the United States who have and have not established legal ties between partners. This framework is complemented by a discussion of key rulings that define what is legally possible as well as the introduction of "legal consciousness,"…