In schools, like many business organizations, the establishment of mission statements has become common practice. In fact, many high schools are required to establish mission statements as part of an accreditation process. The intent of mission statements is to establish organizational purpose, and theoretically, once established the practice of…

Three decades of mounting academic and testing requirements are snagging growing numbers of students in the 9th grade. "The bulge" is the name education researchers give to the percentage increase in students in the 9th grade over the same period. This article reports on factors that might explain the growing 9th grade bottleneck and…