In the past, parents of children with disabilities have spearheaded several policies for individuals with disabilities. However, little is known about their experiences with legislators. To address this gap, focus groups and surveys about legislative advocacy were conducted with 127 parents of individuals with disabilities across four states. The…

Many women are considered viable candidates to hold political office but choose not to run for various reasons. One of those reasons is that they do not see the characteristics in themselves that they determine necessary to be a successful politician. For the past five years, the Intern Fellowship Program at Simmons College has matched young women…

This article reports on the eroding power of state school boards in the U.S. as lawmakers and governors are seeking to expand their authority over K-12 education and, in some cases, reverse education policy set in motion by elected or appointed panels. This year alone, state boards in Florida, Ohio, and Vermont are targets of legislation that…

Interviews with state legislators from Wisconsin (D. Bezruki), Massachusetts (T. P. Kennedy), and Virginia (P. Leone) illustrate the roles that evaluation is playing in the current state budget crisis. The influence of evaluation data appears largely specific to individual programs rather than systematically applied to the budgeting process. (SLD)

Describes a grassroots organization of 500 educators from Massachusetts who attempted to influence their legislature to provide more funding for computers. Discusses the attempt to inform the legislators and the problems involved in the project. (MVL)