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 "Fair Discipline." Contents include: (1) At What Cost? A Review of School Police…

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 in Texas and across the United States. The theme of this issue is "Religion Equity." Articles include: (1) Religion Equity in Schools…

Dropout remains a persistent challenge within high school education. In this paper, we present a case study on automatically detecting whether a student is at-risk of dropout within a diverse school district in Texas. We predict whether a student will drop out in a future school year from data on students' discipline, attendance, course-taking,…

This article discusses some basic principles that can guide principals' decisions on when and how to regulate student dress. Like many school issues, implementing a dress code or uniform policy involves both the constitutional rights of students and the responsibilities of school officials. As a result, with dress codes and many other concerns,…

Tells efforts by Pearland Independent School District (Texas) school board and superintendent to adopt a standardized dress code, an effort that led to student and community opposition and controversy. Describes lessons learned. (PKP)

School districts in the Education Service Center, Region 2, (southern Texas) were surveyed to examine procedures the districts have put in place to identify threats of violence to school safety and security. The target population was 47 school districts. Data collection was done using mailed questionnaires with a simple yes/no answer format.…

In this article, the author focuses on the issue involving zero tolerance in the Texas district whether the dress code policy is reasonable. In a small Texas school district, over 700 students were suspended in a single month for violating a zero-tolerance dress code policy. This suspension, which attracted national attention and threats of…

Public education consists of various levels of laws, policies, regulations, rules, guidelines, and practices based on the U.S. Constitution. At each level, there is a set of "do's and don'ts" guiding the actions of people involved in public education. This handbook, written to help people understand their rights relating to public…

"Chronicle of Higher Education" presents an abundant source of news and information for college and university faculty members and administrators. This January 23, 2004 issue of "Chronicle for Higher Education" includes the following articles: (1) "Never Mind: An Assistant Professor Who Thought about Quitting Academe has a…