The Sanction Enhancement Group, pilot tested in the Division of Housing at the University of Florida, was a structured group experience for residence hall students. The group's experience reflected a major goal of the judicial system within the Division of Housing--education through redirecting behavior. The group members were students whose…

A review of the literature on corporate governance serves to demonstrate the applicability of many governance solutions to the university setting. Based on a review of university scandals, most of which are recent but some of which took place decades ago, it is possible to categorize them as follows: sex scandals, drugs, cheating, hazing,…

Over the past two decades or so, a majority of states have implemented policies that link teenagers' driver's licenses to school attendance, academic performance, or behavior, but those requirements are not backed by solid research evidence. Experts trace the start of the trend to 1988, when West Virginia enacted a law linking driving privileges…

James M. Fadool, an associate professor of biology at Florida State University, got a federal grant of more than $300,000 to study eye defects using zebra-fish. Some of that money went to pay another researcher, $1,536 biweekly, to assist with the research and manage the lab where the fish were kept. But an audit by the Office of Inspector General…

An important criticism of high-stakes testing policies--policies that reward or sanction schools based on their students' performance on standardized tests--is that they provide schools with an incentive to focus on those subjects that play a role in the accountability system while decreasing attention to those subjects that are not part of the…

This paper analyzes the incentives and responses of public schools in the context of an educational reform. The literature on the effect of voucher programs on public schools typically focuses on student and mean school scores. This paper tries to go inside the black box to investigate some of the ways in which schools facing the Florida voucher…

School systems across the nation have adopted policies that reward or sanction particular schools on the basis of their students' performance on standardized math and reading tests. One of the most frequently raised concerns regarding such "high-stakes testing" policies is that they oblige schools to focus on subjects for which they are…

The relatively poor academic achievement of black and Hispanic students has been a national concern since the passage of the "Elementary Secondary and Education Act" in 1963. Frustrated with relatively slow progress in closing these educational gaps, the most recent reauthorization of the ESEA, the "No Children Left Behind Act of…

This study examines the relationship between high-stakes school accountability and its effects upon student test scores and school policies. The authors seek to understand the extent to which accountability sanctions and incentives for the poorest-performing schools in Florida explain subsequent changes in school practices and policies as well as…

This paper explores what lessons we can learn from the experiences of states that instituted NCLB-like accountability systems prior to 2001 (here called first-generation accountability systems). We looked at the experiences of three smaller states (Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina), four larger ones (California, Florida, New York, Texas), and…

This qualitative study conducted in urban Miami, Florida, explored the essence of juvenile delinquency and recidivism: its causes, its relations to communities, the roles of families, and the myriad roles of residential treatment programs at rehabilitating young offenders. Data were collected from nine young adult participants who had satisfied…

Governor Jeb Bush and a Republican-dominated legislature have legislated a sweeping revision of the Florida education code that could qualify 150,000 of the state's 2.3 million public-school students for vouchers. A convenient diversion from true school reform, Bush's Opportunity Scholarship Program will be judged unconstitutional. (MLH)

According to the 2000 census, high school dropouts had a 52% employment rate, compared to 71% for high school graduates and 83% for college graduates. According to NCSE, the national dropout rate is 30% of which 80% had been chronically absent from school ("School attendance tracking: Challenges and effective practices"), which puts the…

This paper explores what lessons can be learned from the experiences of states that instituted NCLB-like accountability systems prior to 2001 (here called first-generation accountability systems). It looks at the experiences of three smaller states (Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina), four larger ones (California, Florida, New York, Texas), and…

No Child Left Behind as well as many state policies maintain that the threat of sanctions are a method that will insure quality teaching and improved student achievement. Proponents of these policies often point to states such as Florida and Texas and their improved achievement scores under such policies. For the most part, these claims are not…