School improvement and its associated policies aim at providing a quality education, a burdensome weight which rests largely on the shoulders of teachers. To achieve such ends, policy texts have been reformed with neoliberal underpinnings, which allow private organizations to enter a space that previously operated through public institutions. In…

This paper outlines the methodological framework of a discourse study of the Austrian school system and presents findings on the question of what underlying meanings and ideologies are mediated by practices of self-regulated learning and how this contributes to the reproduction of neoliberal societies. In the first section I will discuss how…

Analysis of two recent federal court cases in which principals violated student speech rights offers guidance to middle school administrators as they attempt to address student expression. Characteristics of a successful school from the Association for Middle Level Education provide a framework for analyzing these cases in order to prevent…

In the United States increasingly more children are being identified as needing special services. Teachers are usually the first to identify children in need of such services and refer those children for evaluation. Due to the fact that more of these children are being included in the regular classroom environment, it is imperative for teachers to…

Background: This study attempted to determine whether state laws regulating low nutrient, high energy-dense foods and beverages sold outside of the reimbursable school meals program (referred to as "competitive foods") are associated with children's weight status. Methods: We use the Classification of Laws Associated with School…

The two recently-filed New York lawsuits claiming that teacher tenure laws violate children's constitutional right to a "sound basic education" are finally dragging the long-obscure Section 3020-a of the state's Education Law into the spotlight. This attention is badly overdue because for decades § 3020-a has impeded efforts to ensure a…

In the United States, approximately 2.5 million students are diagnosed as having a learning disability and the majority of those children are placed in special education because of an inability to read as expected. As a result of this diagnosis, these children may be placed in special education classrooms--classrooms that are separate from the…

In this article, the author makes a distinction between two kinds of change: tinkering change and systemic change. Tinkering change includes reforms intended to address a specific deficiency or practice. Such tinkering change can be contrasted to what Shakespeare termed "sea change" in "The Tempest" ("a sea change into something rich and strange")…

In 2002, voters in Florida approved a constitutional amendment limiting class sizes in public schools to 18 students in the elementary grades, 22 students in middle grades, and 25 in high school grades. Analyzing statewide achievement data for school districts from 2004-2006 and for schools in 2007, this study purports to find that "mandated…

The American School Counseling Association (ASCA) identifies scheduling students for classes as a non-counseling activity. Ideally, school counselors should limit non-counseling activities, but the reality is that counselors do in fact spend much time and energy scheduling classes, according to a recent survey of secondary counselors. We introduce…

The economic and social exigencies brought about for Italy by her entrance into the war in May, 1915, inevitably led her educational thinkers to submit her traditional system of education to more careful scrutiny than ever before, and to recognize how inadequate it was along certain lines to meet the demands thrust upon it by the new conditions.…

The Office of Education frequently receives requests for information regarding the educational developments in the Soviet Zone of Germany. This bulletin is issued by the Office of Education as another in its longstanding series of international education publications. Unlike most bulletins in this series that are based on firsthand interviews and…