The Americans with Disabilities Act affects administration of college student financial aid in areas such as need analysis, determination of satisfactory academic progress, enrollment status, and loan cancellation. Compliance requires an understanding of the definitions of disability, reasonable accommodation, academic progress, and enrollment…

Interviews and surveys of 13 teachers and staff and 213 students from four successful Canadian "outreach schools" found that the characteristics of alternative education that contribute to its success are volunteerism, small size, egalitarianism, a caring attitude, participatory decision making, organizational flexibility, individualized…

Examines 21 female administrators' accounts of their experience in a rural Nova Scotia school district. Presents preliminary findings of these women's own responses, resistances, and initiatives while attempting to legitimize and implement their preferred leadership styles, which stressed relationships, instructional leadership, communication, and…

This article describes a preliminary information-gathering activity that examined 37 professionals' perceptions of their roles and that of families in the augmentative and alternative communication processes. Transcripts of proceedings were analyzed, and perceptions were organized around five themes: communication style, specific information…

Using institutional data, this paper presents a model to enable researchers and enrollment managers to assess the effectiveness of financial aid packaging policies in light of student characteristics and institutional market position. The model uses discriminant analysis and a series of hypothetical financial aid award scenarios to predict the…

In answering the question posed in the title, the author begins with a story that businessman Jamie Vollmer told to educators a few years ago. In examining business involvement in U.S. school reform, the author looks at the 1890s through 1920s and the 1970s to the present--two points in history when business leaders and educational entrepreneurs,…

One hundred and thirty final year high school students were administered scales tapping optimism/pessimism, self-esteem, external career barriers, career decision-making self-efficacy, career focus and career indecision. It was hypothesised, first, that cognitive style optimism/pessimism) would predict both internal (self-esteem) and external…

The success of implementing school change is determined in large part by the effectiveness of building leadership and time utilization. This paper describes the changing role of an urban principal as her building moved from a traditional junior high structure to a more collaborative small-school structure involving interdisciplinary grade-level…

This article explores the relationship between teachers perceptions of administrative practice in high schools and students perceptions of the school, teachers and their own performance. It was found that where decision making is perceived by teachers as collegial, collaborative, co-operative and consultative and providing adequate opportunities…

The Baltimore City Public School System's (BCPSS) Grade 9 Transition Program was implemented in 2001-02. It is designed to increase student achievement in an era of No Child Left Behind federal legislation by providing additional time and learning opportunities for eighth-grade students who have not met all promotion standards established by the…

Few researchers have asked students directly about what they know and need to know regarding college and career planning. Given the critical choices made early in high school, ninth graders (n = 222) were surveyed regarding their educational and career plans and the resources they were using in their decision-making. Overall results as well as…

The shortcomings of standardized testing as the predominant form of student assessment in the United States are reviewed, and the use and potential benefits of portfolio assessment are explored. Children's educational experiences and their future job prospects and standards of living are being decided by test scores. Moreover, these test scores…

This paper explores the implications of an effort to promote service learning in two middle schools in the Palo Alto (California) Unified School District. The schools are grades six through eight with about 1,000 students in each. The paper describes seven service efforts and then analyzes the costs and benefits of these projects. The study…

This study is the second in a series designed to explore the probable consequences of exceeding the prescribed time limits in the administration of standardized achievement tests. This study considered whether the test user could apply norms that accompany the test if departures were made from established time limits, and whether increased testing…

The expectations of parents of students with disabilities who transferred schools through an open enrollment option were examined in this qualitative study. In-depth interviews were conducted with parents of 18 children and adolescents who transferred their child through Minnesota's open enrollment law. Interviews addressed: the student's history…