Teaching the Declaration of Independence can be a challenge. This article presents a lesson plan based on an explication of the title and the first three lines of the Declaration intended to make the American founding era relevant to today's college students. Assuming civic education is a major goal of teaching American Government, assuming…

Background: Many district and school leaders experience difficulties staffing their classrooms with qualified teachers. Economic incentives may motivate teachers to enter and remain in the workforce and entice teachers to work in less desirable districts and schools. However, very little is known about incentives in use, how they are used to…

This article discusses the importance of archiving state commission papers, documenting the formation of public policy, and allowing the public access to an organized collection of the data gathered by the Florida Commission on Mental Health and Substance Abuse. Florida's citizens with mental illnesses or substance abuse disorders face a myriad of…

This report examines school district staffing patterns in Florida. School districts selected for this report were asked to identify actual job duties for all staff who were assigned to an instructional job title for the 1997-98 school year, were not assigned to a specific group of students, or were assigned to the superintendent's office. Staffing…

A study of the readability of governmental pamphlets produced by the State of Florida, based on the use of the Flesch Reading Ease Formula and the Dale-Chall Formula, suggests that if a seventh or eighth grade readability level is considered an appropriate standard for public information brochures, the brochures tested may be too complex…

Florida's 113 charter schools serve 18,255 students and provide opportunities for education innovation and school choice. Many serve at-risk and low-income students. Schools report positive student progress but need stronger accountability. Two-thirds of charter schools are not subject to Florida's A+ school accountability system because they…

Intended as a general guideline for selecting government documents at the University of Miami (Florida) Otto G. Richter Library, this collection development policy includes the following sections: (1) Introduction; (2) Mission Statement; (3) Selection Responsibility; (4) Subject Areas, Collection Intensity Levels and Collection Arrangement,…