This newsletter includes five articles about educational and school policies, primarily related to equality of educational opportunity. "Texas Legislature Considers Much for Education, Accomplishes Little" (Albert Cortez, Anna Alicia Romero) summarizes educational legislation considered by the Texas legislature in the session ending in…

This digest examines community college transfer and articulation and presents suggestions for more effectively meeting the needs of students. Community colleges should provide a base of education, vocational or general, which enables students to transfer successfully to a four-year institution, reenter the workforce, and/or advance their careers.…

This paper takes a distributed perspective on leadership practice in schools. Drawing upon empirical evidence from two contemporary studies of successful school leadership and the international research base concerning distributed leadership, the paper argues that leadership practice is a distributed entity that is mediated through human…

In response to a Congressional mandate in conjunction with the Protection of Children from Sexual Predators Act of 1998, a committee of experts was formed to explore both technical and nontechnical strategies for protecting children from pornography and other inappropriate Internet content. This book summarizes a workshop held in December 2000 to…

This document is comprised of the six issues in volume 16 of the Harvard Education Letter, a bimonthly newsletter addressing current issues in elementary and secondary education. Articles in this volume include the following: (1) January-February--"Grade Inflation: What's Really behind All Those A's?" (Birk) and "Every Friday was Fight Day"…

This bulletin on the use of the schoolhouse as a polling place is divided into two sections. Part I, Use of Schoolhouse for Political Purposes, explains why this practice is beneficial to the schools (allows youth to witness and understand the civic process) and to the public (it is economical, worthy, appropriate, convenient, permanent,…

An investigation was conducted among New South Wales secondary school administrators to determine their agreement on decision-making responsibility for: educational administration, curriculum, teacher-student, and school-community relations. (Note: Page f. . .=fiche number.) (Author/MH)

Summarizes strategies most likely to be effective in promoting healthy eating among school-aged youths and provides nutrition education guidelines for a comprehensive school health program. The guidelines include recommendations on seven aspects of a school based program to promote healthy eating. (SM)

Presents 10 major issues parents need to address effectively in order to advocate for their children's education (safety, discipline, practices and policies, grading, labels, bias, curriculum and schedules, standardized tests, homework, and subject anxiety). The article suggests appropriate questions to ask the schools. (SM)

The ways in which legal change affect institutions of higher education are examined, focusing on three specific legal issues: the residency status of a foreign student; faculty rights to inventions and discoveries; and racial harassment on campus. An implementation process model is recommended to measure the effects of policy implementation. (MSE)

A survey examined college and later-life experiences of over 35,000 students who entered 28 selective colleges in fall 1976 and fall 1989. Although half the 3,000 black students surveyed would have been rejected under race-neutral admissions criteria, they did exceedingly well after college. Almost 80% of white graduates favored retaining or…

Describes findings from the School Health Policies and Programs Study 2000 about state- and district-level requirements and policies, standards and guidelines, evaluation, collaboration, and staffing and professional preparation; also addressing school-level requirements and policies, standards and guidelines, student assessment, collaboration,…

This paper examines Australian students' knowledge of Asia, and reports on a national survey of Year 5 and 8 students. Knowledge was measured by using a combined set of subtests tailored to each state and territory curriculum and reported in terms of a standards referenced framework. The survey collected data from more than 7000 students in over…

The authors examine the developmental process by which a reclaiming environment was created in an alternative program for students designated emotionally disturbed. Efforts to identify the impetus for change, specific actions, and the ongoing evolution of the program's philosophy are discussed. The current environment is examined in the following…

This multi-year study reports on results for New York City Charter Schools through the 2005-2006 school year. As independent entities within the public sector, charter schools vary in their policies and practices. Policies that are unusual in traditional public schools but fairly common among New York City's charter schools include long school…