Test security has increased in importance in the last few years given high-profile cases of educator misconduct. This paper provides a review of state test security statutes and regulations related to statewide achievement testing using as a framework recent best practices reports by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education…

This study revisits case learning's effects on student engagement and assesses student learning as a result of the use of case studies and problem-based learning. The author replicates a previous study that used indirect assessment techniques to get at case learning's impact, and then extends the analysis using a pre- and post-test experimental…

The researcher proposed to determine the expansiveness of Louisiana's public school districts' anti-bullying policies. Specifically, student codes of conduct and board polices were analyzed to determine the extent to which schools define, outline reporting procedures, keep written records of, investigate, and render disciplinary sanctions against…

Criminologists have long grappled with the varying effect of sanctions. In an effort to clarify these divergent effects, Sherman (1993) delineated a general theory of sanction effects, termed "defiance theory." Defiance theory anticipates that there are four necessary conditions for defiance to occur: (a) the sanction must be perceived…

The role of the school superintendent has evolved as a result of increased accountability, specifically under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation. Prior to NCLB, superintendents spent time the majority of their time on the managerial and political domains of leadership; however, the NCLB accountability movement combined with research on…

This article ethnographically examines the paradoxical situation in which one high-achieving New York City public school is "constructed" as failing when No Child Left Behind (NCLB) assessments are miscalculated. Drawing upon actor-network theory (ANT)--a perspective that aims to explain how people, their ideas, and the material objects…

In "Roper v. Simmons," the U.S. Supreme Court determined that the sentencing of juveniles to death violated the constitutional amendment against cruel and unusual punishment. Similarly, the Court most recently decided that life without parole for non-homicide offenses is also unconstitutional ("Graham v. Florida," 2010). Part of the reason for the…

This article, written by three research-active teachers with the support of their academic partner, interrogates the achievement-attendance link in the most recent government quantitative data for secondary schools in England: persistent absentees stands at 6.6% for all children, but it raises to 9% for students who are classed as "Pupil…

Athletes with learning disabilities have had a difficult time being included in the Paralympics. They have faced a lot of discrimination, including from other disabled athletes, and just when they were finally included (at the Sydney games in 2000), the Spanish Basketball team cheated by having players on their team who did not have learning…

Current legislation at the state and federal level is largely based on the premise that we can best protect children by prohibiting sexual offenders' access to children through the use of residency restrictions, employment sanctions, and community notification. While well intentioned, these policies are short sighted and based more on public…

In the original "No Pass/No Play" legislation (enacted by Texas State Legislature in 1985), students had to pass all classes with at least a 70% average to participate in sports or extracurricular activities. Since then, no pass/no play regulations have been enacted across the nation with little evidence regarding their effectiveness. Questions…

This study investigates the effect of the threat of legal sanctions on intentions to commit three types of offenses with a representative sample of 744 officially adjudicated youth with varying histories of offenses and gang involvement. In a departure from previous research, the authors find small severity effects for property crimes that are not…

These data merge correctional histories with official state and courthouse information for a sample of teenage offenders, some of whom had been transferred to the adult system. Previous research indicated that transfer aggravates recidivism after the age of 18. The correctional data allow the examination of the relationship between sanctions and…

Objective: The U.S. Air Force recently implemented system-wide changes that both (a) clarified the criteria used to determine when family maltreatment has occurred and (b) made the process by which these decisions are made more consistent. The current study examined the effects of these changes on family maltreatment recidivism. Method: Official…

Teen courts have grown rapidly in the United States despite little evidence of their effectiveness. A survival analysis of 635 teen court and 186 regular diversion participants showed no significant differences in recidivism, although program completers were half as likely to reoffend as noncompleters. Older offenders survived significantly better…