Overweight has reached alarming proportions among America's youth. Although the cause of the rise in overweight rates in children and adolescents is certainly the result of the interaction of a variety of factors, the presence of vending machines in schools is one issue that has recently come to the forefront. Many states have passed or proposed…

Ron Unz, originator of Proposition 227, claimed, prior to the passage of Prop. 227, that the five percent annual reclassification rate of English learners to fluent English proficient indicated bilingual education was a failure. Critics of Prop. 227 have countered that the annual reclassification rate has changed little since the passage of Prop.…

Germany ranks in the bottom fourth in spending on higher education in a comparison among Western industrial countries. Germany's status as a place for higher education is imperiled. There is a danger that in the near future, the very best and most promising of the upcoming generations will increasingly choose only professionally relevant training…

On January 8, 2002, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) into law. Surrounded by smiling members of the Democratic and Republican leadership, the President declared, "as of this hour, America's schools will be on a new path of reform, and a new path of results". NCLB brought sweeping changes to the…

This article analyzes how school reforms in the United States during the 1990s supported transformative literacy practices in the context of a Hmong-English third grade classroom. Using methods that allow for an analysis of both macro and micro discourses shaping the literacy practices of English language learners, this 2-year study illustrates…

Act 49 of 1987 requires the Secretary of Education to provide the General Assembly with an annual report on public school dropouts in Pennsylvania. The purpose of this report is to document the actual number of students who drop out each year and to provide various characteristics about these students. The type of data collected about each dropout…

The purpose of this descriptive case study was to trace the policy production process of a state agency, the Iowa College Student Aid Commission (Commission), to its function today. This case study relied on a review of federal and state statutes, a news article search, biennium reports of the Commission, and information obtained from the…

Secondary vocational-technical education programs in Mississippi are faced with many challenges resulting from sweeping educational reforms at the national and state levels. Schools and teachers are increasingly being held accountable for providing true learning activities to every student in the classroom. This accountability is measured through…

The "Victorian Free Library Service Board Act" of 1946 was the culmination of a long campaign to replace the mechanics' institute model of library provision with free libraries funded by state and local government. Given that library reform required legislation by the state government, this paper is mainly concerned with the political…

This article discusses how federal and state governments can improve student access to private and public higher education institutions. Florida helps to achieve that with a common course-numbering system across community and four-year colleges, which permits students to easily transfer credits. Both the Senate and the House of Delegates in…

In the small border town focalized in this article, just north of the Mexican and US border stations, daily businesses, including city council meetings, retail, and public services, are conducted in Spanish. Only the schools insist upon English, this insistence backed by state proposition 200, funded primarily by Ron Unz, but passed by Arizona…

This year's "Report Card" breaks new ground by providing "The Children's Agenda", which details the top ten high-priority, high-impact actions California policymakers should take to reverse the declining status of children. It's clear any sound plan to revitalize the state must prioritize children's development. California's history backs this up,…

This document updates "Accommodations: Assisting Students with Disabilities. A Guide for Educators," published by the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) in 2003. This document is written to assist school district personnel and parents when making decisions about the use of accommodations by students with disabilities in instructional…

Tennessee Code Annotated (T.C.A.) Section 49-7-202 (c) (7) requires the Tennessee Higher Education Commission to "submit a biennial report to the governor and the general assembly, commenting upon major developments, trends, new policies, budgets and financial considerations which in the judgment of the commission will be useful to the…

In this report, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) takes a close look at the governance of the teaching profession and finds that state legislators and other state-level policymakers crafting state laws and regulation, not those bargaining at the local level, decide some of the most important rules governing the teaching profession.…