Chronic truancy can have dire consequences from crime and unwanted pregnancy to drug abuse and poor economic futures. Mental illness, lack of parental support, unwanted pregnancy or marriage issues, undocumented immigrant status, drug abuse, and crime are reasons students become chronically truant. Accountability measures passed down from the…

Truancy is an important issue facing U.S. school systems as it is known that students who are truant are more likely to participate in criminal activity later in life (Baker, Sigmon & Nugent, 2001; Henry & Thornberry, 2010). This study examines recent data from students at 21 schools within a large midwestern school district. Survival…

Purpose: The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the impact that function, experience, and training of Independent School District School Resource Officers (ISD SROs) have on school climate. The participants were ISD SROs (n = 172) and teachers (n = 162) located in middle and high schools in Texas. Method: The Role of Law…

This study examines factors affecting test scores in a sample of thirty-seven Texas public high schools from 2003 to 2007 since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. The schools were chosen based upon similar tax rates and district sizes. The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test was implemented in 2003…

The Student Mobility Index is designed to be a highly sensitive statistic of classroom disruption. The idea behind the statistic is that any student entries or exits to and from a classroom during the year, over however many days, contribute to a disruption of instructional continuity and obstacle to institutional organization. This kind of…

This research examined the level of equity of the public school funding system in Texas that in September of 2004 was held to be unconstitutional by a state district judge. The study also introduces a mechanism, referred to as the Revenue-to-Population Index or RTP Index, which compares funding equity within the unconstitutional system among 1031…

In response to concern about the effectiveness of programs for English-as-a-Second-Language students in California's schools, the Santa Ana Unified School District, in which over 80 percent of students are limited-English-proficient (LEP) conducted a study of both the operations and effectiveness of the district's language development program,…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not the implementation of a mandatory uniform policy in urban public high schools improved school performance measures at the building level for rates of attendance, graduation, academic proficiency, and student conduct as measured by rates of suspensions and expulsions. Sixty-four secondary…