Past U.S. Supreme Court rulings have held that schools and school employees must be careful to engage in religious activities while at school that could appear to endorse a particular religion above others or coerce students to engage in religious activities. However, the June 2022 Kennedy v. Bremerton School District opinion suggests that the…

One of the most powerful ways to boost the payoff from school sports lays in helping coaches build developmental relationships with student-athletes. Developmental relationships are close connections through which young people develop character skills to discover who they are, gain the ability to shape their own lives, and learn how to interact…

Even though the teaching profession is dominated by women, men hold more superintendent positions. The authors examine the pipeline that leads to the principalship and the superintendency and how it has evolved over time. They note school boards are more likely to perceive high school principals and athletic coaches as plausible superintendents,…

Scholastic sport is a double-edged sword that can have positive or negative effects. Whether those effects are positive or negative depends on those who wield that sword--chiefly, the school's sports coach. While it is clear that coaches make a difference in ensuring that educational athletics lead to beneficial outcomes for student-athletes, a…

Classroom teachers could learn a lesson from football coaches. Evidence suggests they know more about how their coaching affects their athletes' performance than classroom teachers do regarding student achievement. It is equally possible that the athletes are learning more quickly and in a deeper way than students in the classroom. Why? One reason…

Myles Brand is a person of unquestioned integrity and high principle. As president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), he has been asked to fend off an unruly mob with a switch. In the present environment for collegiate sports, his chances for success are slight, at best. What Brand and the NCAA face today is a very real "arms…

Their special role and the unusual demands placed on them isolate coaches from the rest of the academic bureaucracy. Athletes entering the field of coaching are so thoroughly socialized that they bring with them certain personality traits characteristic of athletes, distinct from other members of the faculty. (Editor)

A Bloomington, Indiana, high school football team lost its first game in six years at the end of the 1973 season. A sports writer's study of the effects on some of the principals. (Editors)

Coaches are teachers and they succeed to the degree to which they understand that their job is the selfless task of educating students and not the selfish glory of a single-minded pursuit of glittering records. (Author/IRT)

A panel of coaches, sports writers, and a high school principal discusses the causes of and remedies for recent scandals in intercollegiate athletics. (IRT)

Pennsylvania State University's winningest coach calls for the reform of intercollegiate athletics, and a complete overhaul of the National Collegiate Athletic Association. (Author/EA)

None of the pressures from alumni, citizenry, or students is sufficient to maintain an activity (big-time football) which contradicts the aims of a university unless there is solid support from within the ivied walls. Athletics are under faculty and administrator control. (Author/EA)

In early 1999, the boys' varsity basketball coach for the Hazel Park School District, which is in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, unexpectedly announced his intention to retire at the end of the year. The only two applicants for his position were John Barnett and Geraldine Fuhr. After the interview process, the superintendent announced that Barnett…

The present structure must be modified so that athletics will again be self-initiated, fun-oriented, and player-controlled, with equal opportunities for girls and women. (Editors)

School athletics can be an exceedingly potent tool for developing desirable behavior patterns -- but only if directed by coaches of resolute integrity. Offers illustrative anecdotes. (Editors)