This paper presents an analysis of an environmental justice (EJ) program adopted by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) as a part of its regulation to phase out a toxic chemical used by dry cleaners. SCAQMD provided financial incentives to switch early and gave establishments in EJ neighborhoods priority in applying for…

Learning its history has been one of the great pleasures of working on the centennial of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), a project the author began in 2003 that is now almost finished. This centennial, of course, is not the only time NCTE has looked backwards to its history. A case in point is the 1960 golden anniversary,…

The increasing number of special education-related lawsuits has become costly, time-consuming, and a strain on school-community relations--in short, an issue of growing concern to U. S. school systems. To identify factors associated with this type of litigation, this study analyzed data from one state's 10-year experience with due process special…

This article examines responses of 13 preservice students to a mentoring program during their junior year. Throughout the first two terms of a five semester teacher education program, senior physical education specialists agreed to mentor them (in pairs or trios) relative to their development. This qualitative analysis included collection of…

Since Federal regulations have given states the option to implement alternate assessments based on modified academic achievement standards (AA-MAS) as part of their accountability systems for a small group of students with disabilities, a number of states have made decisions about whether or not to develop and implement such an assessment.…

The Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) supports projects that are designed to reform teacher and principal compensation. Initially, the Department of Education (the Department) made two rounds of awards, in 2006 and 2007, to a total of 34 grantees. The specific goals of TIF were to reward teachers and principals for improving student achievement,…

With the rapid growth and expansion of the Asian economies in recent years, there has been a continued rise of students in Asia who are studying outside their home countries. This study attempts to highlight the major strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of Hong Kong's higher education in relation to its potential of being a regional…

Respite is one of the critical support systems for families and carers who support and care for a person with a life-long disability. This study examined the profile of respite services in the Australian state of New South Wales and explored respite providers' views of the factors influencing respite use, and their expectations of respite…

Within a wider study of pedagogic change, students from two innovating secondary schools described their experiences of the changes presumed to be occurring in their schools. The students exhibited scant knowledge of the innovations. While their learning was promoted as the motive for change, their role appeared to have been peripheral at best.…

Scholars, advocates of various positions, and policymakers have fiercely debated whether the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP), also known as the voucher or "Choice" program, has been a godsend or a scourge for the city's children. Wisconsin policymakers, concerned about that question, identified the School Choice Demonstration…

This article reports the results of a survey of novice superintendents in California, Missouri, North Carolina, and Ohio. The research provides a profile of novice superintendents and their opinions regarding the adequacy of academic preparation and the problems they encountered after entering this challenging position. Findings indicate that the…

Historically, community colleges have played a role in preparing teachers by strengthening articulation and transfer with university-based teacher colleges, hosting university center programs that provide upper division teacher education courses, and providing alternative teacher certification programming for holders of bachelor's and higher…

The importance of the beliefs and attitudes of teachers and building-level administrators in achieving school reform has come to be widely acknowledged. As University of Wisconsin professor Kent Peterson put it: "You can implement a good-quality improvement plan and knowledgeable, data-driven decision making, but if the [staff] doesn't…

In this study, the authors tried to understand the types of dilemmas that adult leaders of youth programs encounter in their daily work with young people. The dilemmas come from an in-depth longitudinal study of ongoing experiences in twelve high-quality urban and rural programs for high school-aged youth. Transcripts from 125 interviews with the…

Schools have much to learn from video games and the gaming community. By providing compelling activities for motivating otherwise indifferent learners, video games can potentially help teachers improve the design of learning environments. However, there are considerable rhetorical and practical barriers between the schooling and gaming communities…