Research has demonstrated that principals have a powerful impact on school improvement and student learning. Principals play a vital role in recruiting, developing, and retaining effective teachers; creating a school-wide culture of learning; and implementing a continuous improvement plan aimed at increasing student achievement. Leithwood, Louis,…

The purpose of this document is to determine whether revocation of parental consent is currently posing a challenge for states and to describe how states are responding to this new provision. Although parental consent has always played a central role in Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the new provision allowing revocation of parental…

In this comprehensive effort to study Indian education policies, the report categorizes the policies of five Northwest Region states based on 13 key policies identified in the literature and describes the legal methods used to adopt them, such as statutes, regulations, and executive orders. The study found that six of the key policies had been…

The Code of Virginia requires school divisions statewide to submit data annually to the Department of Education (DOE) on incidents of discipline, crime, and violence. These incidents shall include: (1) those that occurred on school property, on a school bus, or at a school-sponsored activity; and (2) offenses, wherever committed, by students…

This paper describes the National State Policy Database (NSPD), a full-text searchable database of state and federal education regulations for special education. It summarizes the history of the NSPD and reports on a survey of state directors or their designees as to their use of the database and their suggestions for its future expansion. The…

This paper analyzes data from a 1998 survey of state academic officers that covered state policies related to distance education technology. Concerning general planning issues, the survey found most respondents rated "overall coordination and planning" as highly important, and that 22 states have a formal technology plan in place (Web…