A 3-year study of 505 misdemeanor offenders in Houston (Texas) was conducted to assess the feasibility of adopting a policy of sanctions alternative to prison sentences for this class of criminal. The most salient finding was the emergence of probation as a superior sanction. (TJH)

Texts such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) contribute to the contexts in which one works because of the restrictions and sanctions they impose upon teachers and children. As others in this issue discuss in more detail, NCLB has a punitive edge that can replace teachers, decrease local school control, and change curriculum (L. Meyer, 2003). In this…

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act is currently being reviewed in Congress for reauthorization. NCLB, among the most significant U.S. education initiatives, reauthorized the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act and is founded on four primary objectives: (1) increasing accountability for states, school districts, and schools; (2) giving…

The federal No Child Left Behind Act and previous performance-based accountability policies are based on a theoretical assumption that sanctions will motivate school staff to perform at higher levels and focus attention on student outcomes. Using data from Chicago, this article draws on expectancy and incentive theories to examine whether…

Social software, such as blogs, wikis, tagging systems and collaborative filters, treats the group as a first-class object within the system. Drawing from theories of transactional distance and control, this paper proposes a model of e-learning that extends traditional concepts of learner-teacher-content interactions to include these emergent…

Background: The role of race and ethnicity is consistently found to be linked to the likelihood of students experiencing school violence-related outcomes; however, the findings are not always consistent. The variation of likelihood, as well as the type, of student-related school violence outcome among the Latino student population may be…

This paper considers the discursive production of violence in the context of educational markets. Drawing on a larger study of sexually violent incidents that occurred in an elite private boys' school in Sydney, Australia, in 2000, the paper examines disciplinary traditions and communicative practices surrounding these events. Insights from Michel…

Test-based educational accountability systems have considerable appeal to politicians, policymakers, and the general public. Such systems have been widely used by states for more than a decade and with the enactment of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 all states must now implement an accountability system that uses results from assessments in…

Ways in which schools can handle student discipline problems are described in this Digest, which asserts that effective strategies aim to encourage responsible behavior and provide all students with a satisfying school experience. The document outlines the school characteristics associated with discipline problems, examines ways to decrease…

Literature concerning teachers' right to strike was reviewed. Three major themes were addressed: (1) the present state of arguments against teacher strikes; (2) their refutation by various individuals within the profession; and (3) arguments that were basic in demonstrating that the preponderance of evidence has shifted to the inevitable…

This selective bibliography on censorship and the nature of obscenity lists 19 lower and Supreme Court decisions (1727-1967) and 21 articles published in law reviews from 1938 through 1967. The Judges' opinions in the court cases are quoted to suggest the direction in which the courts are moving in regard to the interpretation of obscenity. (SW)

To investigate the impact of teacher militancy on principals, a questionnaire was administered to 121 principals from four selected Indiana cities that had experienced either teacher strikes or sanctions within the past 5 years. Although a majority of the principals responding were undecided as to the relative effectiveness of sanctions or…

Naturally protected by its distance from most migrant routes and with a long undefended border with the U.S., a parliamentary system capable of responding rapidly to problems, and a small legal and even smaller illegal immigrant population, Canada has experimented with novel immigration policies to encourage and control its population increase.…

Policymakers and educators are taking a new look at incentives as they work to improve accountability systems. This ERIC Digest examines the role of rewards and sanctions in school reform and identifies key issues in implementing incentive systems. The new accountability is based on five components: carefully designed standards, assessments…

Argues that administrators must be able to cope (with strikes) in a manner that least compromises the instructional program for students. (Author)