The school to prison pipeline is a social phenomenon in which students become formally involved with the criminal justice system due to behavior issues being addressed with law enforcement consequences rather than school-imposed consequences (Owens, 2015). Culturally responsive practices can also support educators' understanding of the unique…

The "IDRA Newsletter" serves as a vehicle for communication with educators, school board members, decision-makers, parents, and the general public concerning the educational needs of all children across the United States. The focus of this issue is "School Holding Power." Contents include: (1) Texas Higher Education Law Aims to…

Schools have several competing demands, and often suffer from inefficient access to needed resources. Thus, the addition of any program into an already overtaxed school system must be met with convincing evidence that 1) a need or problem exists and is relevant to the education of students, 2) the problem is amenable to change, and 3) addressing…

For over a decade national attention to bullying in American schools has increased, fueled by publicity about suicides of severely bullied youth. Schools have the charge of maintaining the safety of all students in order to ensure a positive learning environment, but there is little information about what they are doing to prevent bullying. The…

State and federal accountability continues to be a major part of public education. The impact that federal legislation has had when working with special needs students adds another facet to public education. Both state and federal accountability play a part in how teachers perceive their attitudes when working with students with disabilities This…

Background: Food service directors have a concern that federal reimbursement is not meeting the demands of increasing costs of healthier meals. The purpose of this article is to report the food option changes and the annual revenues and expenses of the school food service environment. Methods: The HEALTHY study was a 3-year (2006 to 2009)…

The number of school police officers, School Resource Officers (SROs), is increasing on school campuses to assist in preventing school violence, and in particular bullying. This mixed-methods study was conducted to compare the knowledge and perceptions of SROs (N = 184) hired by independent school districts (ISD SROs) and those contracted from law…

To better understand key physical education program factors and policies that may affect Texas students' physical fitness, a 39-question survey, administered as part of the Texas Youth Fitness Study (TYFS), was sent to 5,651 Texas schools via e-mail. The survey consisted of five sections: (a) demographics, (b) physical education/recess frequency…

Background: This study compares the impact of the Texas Public School Nutrition Policy on lunch consumption of low- and middle-income students in sixth through eighth grades. Methods: Students in 1 middle socioeconomic status (SES) and 1 low SES school completed lunch food records before (2001/2002) and after (2005/2006) implementation of the…

Middle and high school students subjected to harsh school discipline policies and practices such as suspensions and expulsions are more likely to disengage from the classroom and course work, and increases their chances of dropping out, according to this new report from the Alliance for Excellent Education. The report recommends implementing…

The Technology Immersion Pilot (TIP), created by the Texas Legislature in 2003, called for the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to establish a pilot project to "immerse" schools in technology by providing a wireless mobile computing device for each teacher and student, technology-based learning resources, training for teachers to integrate…