Case study of how a 10th-grade New York State global-history teacher attempts to understand one of several messages broadcast by the new state curriculum and assessment policies, namely that state policies promote ambitious teaching and learning. Finds that while the teacher altered her teaching, she did so in ways that did not comport with the…

Reviews Ridgewood, New Jersey, case wherein several parents claimed that school district's student survey violated students' privacy rights protected by the Constitution and two federal statutes: The Family Rights and Privacy Act and the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment. Discusses subsequent federal regulatory and state legislative action.…

Because principals are respected, they are in a unique position to affect policy and legislation at all levels. It is time for principals to influence state-level legislative priorities and policies. Principals should establish political contacts, keep informed via state associations, and seize opportunities to advocate for students. (MLH)

A Florida community college dean deplores the dual standard for dual-enrollment classes. Nongrading parents commonly assign their kids a 4.0 GPA to meet enrollment qualifications. Although some states require standardized testing for home-schoolers, others lack guidelines for evaluating home-education programs. This attitude must change. (MLH)

In hopes of shedding light on how public school leaders can better advocate on the state level for the needs of their schools and their students, The School Administrator turned to policymakers in different settings and with different political leanings. They invited a trio--a Republican state legislator from the Chicago suburbs, a rural…

At a time of growing concern around the U.S. about the academic accountability of charter schools, Ohio has mandated a new regime of testing solely for those schools that may force the shutdown of repeated low performers. Under a new state law, Ohio charter schools that meet certain criteria will have to give an extra set of standardized tests at…

A new urban legend claims, "As a result of the state dropping bilingual education, test scores in California skyrocketed." Krashen disputes this theory, pointing out that other factors offer more logical explanations of California's recent improvements in SAT-9 scores. He discusses research on the effects of California's Proposition 227,…

Federal law (Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, P.L. 101-336) and state law concerning the capacity to consent demonstrate the many standards used to determine the severity of retardation and whether a mentally challenged person has the capacity to consent. This area of social policy is fascinating because it adds another layer of debate to…

A federal initiative to expand learning services to adult basic learners via distance learning is proposed. The California experience can prove useful to states and programs wishing to adopt distance learning interventions. This article describes how California adult schools' serve adult learners via distance learning. Over 38,000 unduplicated…

National senior service programs have had a long and relatively successful history. Emerging at the intersection of federal aging and poverty policy initiatives in the early 1960s, projects such as the Foster Grandparent Program (FGP) and the Senior Companion Program (SCP) have expanded in size and scope over the last several decades. These two…

This paper concerns a recent Supreme Court of Canada decision dealing ostensibly with the protection of language minority rights. The case, in fact, however, concerns the Court imposing statutory limits on constitutionally guaranteed equality and liberty rights. The Court in the instant case held as constitutional Quebec legislation permitting…

Previous research on grandparents has focused on the individual and familial level and has characterized grandparent roles as ambiguous and contingent. Emphasizing instead structural phenomena, this theoretical paper argues that grandmother and grandfather roles are being institutionalized through state and federal legislation. This phenomenon…

This article reports the 7-2 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding a Washington state scholarship program that denies aid to theology majors. Disappointing proponents of tuition aid for students in religious schools, the court held that Washington state was well within its rights to exclude students' training for the ministry from its Promise…

On June 7, 1926, the Senate of the University of Illinois authorized "an experiment in the matter of sectioning students upon the basis of ability." Such experiments have since been made in History 2b, Rhetoric 1 and Rhetoric 2, Mathematics 6, and French 1b, under the direction of Pro- fessor E. H. Cameron of the Department of…

State legislation launched the California Partnership Academies (CPAs) in 1984. Now operating in more than 200 comprehensive high schools, CPAs have been used as a model for high school reform in California and elsewhere. Academies typically feature multi-age learning groups, team teaching and career-based instruction. Teachers help students…