The purpose of this report is to explore teacher dismissal practices in Georgia. The report analyzes data in the Fulton County School System from 2012 to 2017, the DeKalb county School District from 2011 to 2016, and the Atlanta Public Schools from 2011 to 2013. The goal of this report was to understand: (1) what teacher dismissal practices in…

In wide-ranging attacks on academic freedom in Turkey in recent years, thousands of academics have lost their university positions. At the end of 2016 oppositional academics, many of whom were dismissed from their positions for having signed a peace petition, established a Street Academy as an alternative way to reach out to both students and the…

In 2012, families in California filed a lawsuit alleging that five state statutes governing teacher tenure, dismissal, and seniority together violate the state constitution's requirements for equal protection. Central to the case were competing narratives about the relationship between these statutes, the work of teachers, and the achievement of…

Purpose: This article presents the place and the role of Sociology teaching in the current Brazilian context, marked by the rise of extreme right ideologies and practices, more specifically by its ultraliberal economic bias and moral conservatism. Design/methodology/approach: Organized in three parts, it outlines, respectively, the macro political…

This article questions the role of universities in the power/knowledge relation by examining the case of Turkey's 'Academics for Peace.' It is based on six in-depth interviews conducted with dismissed peace petitioners. Facing both the market pressures and the state oppression, the intellectual institutions in many countries are in a precarious…

This report concerns actions taken by Linfield University to terminate Dr. Daniel Pollack-Pelzner, a tenured professor of English with ten years of full-time service. The Linfield administration has fully acknowledged that it declined to afford Professor Pollack-Pelzner a dismissal procedure. It has also stated that it dismissed Professor…

In this Martin Center policy brief, "Scholastic Gag Orders: NDAs, Mandatory Arbitration, and the Legal Threat to Academics," Stephen Baskerville explores how non-disparagement agreements (NDAs) and mandatory arbitration (MA) provide a veil of legally enforced secrecy, shielding administrations from negative publicity, professional…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine how school leaders use high-stakes teacher evaluation to improve and, if necessary, remove low-performing teachers in their schools. It explores how cognitive, relational and organizational factors play a role in shaping the way school leaders implement teacher evaluation.…

This report concerns actions taken by the administration of Spalding University to terminate the appointment of tenured professor of social work Erlene Grise-Owens after she criticized the administration's handling of an incident involving a student who brought a gun to a campus parking lot. The social work school's chair immediately alerted…

Just before his death in 1970, John Scopes claimed that his famous trial "had no other effect upon my family" than his sister Lela losing her teaching job in Paducah, Kentucky. He was wrong. My interviews with John Scopes's family members and descendants -- most of whom have never talked about their famous relative until now -- reveal…

This report, prepared by the Association's staff, concerns the case of Dr. Jane Harty, a part-time faculty member with forty years of service in the Department of Music at Pacific Lutheran University (PLU). In November 2018, Dr. Harty was suspended from her teaching responsibilities for the remainder of her one-year contract and informed that she…

In "Houston Federation of Teachers (Plaintiff) v. Houston Independent School District (Defendant)," plaintiffs contested how teachers were being evaluated using a value-added model (VAM) as part of the districts' teacher accountability system. The VAM at issue was the Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS), with potential…

This report focuses on teacher turnover in Maryland's Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) among two groups: (1) Teachers who left MCPS due to resignation or termination ("teacher attrition"), and (2) elementary teachers who transferred or moved to other schools within MCPS ("elementary teacher mobility"). The ultimate goal…

The sexual misconduct of school employees has become a more common issue in the United States, and there has been very little empirical research conducted to provide context or understanding of the prevalence of this problem. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the reasons for license revocation and surrender in North Carolina…

This report concerns actions taken by the administration of University of Nebraska-Lincoln to suspend lecturer, Courtney Lawton from her teaching responsibilities--initially, for stated safety concerns. Lawton is a sixth-year doctoral student with a part-time appointment as lecturer for the 2017-18 academic year. She received threats after a video…