Contemporary models of school reform acknowledge the principal as the passport to school success and the manager of an increasingly complex organization. This digest asserts that principals benefit from professional development that examines best practices, provides coaching support, encourages risk taking designed to improve student learning,…

The controversial legal issue of disciplinary exclusion of special education students is summarized. Presented in question and answer format, the information digest addresses the following questions: Why is the disciplinary exclusion of special education students so controversial? When can a special education student be excluded from school for…

A definition and rationale for full equity under Title IX legislation in terms of outcomes for students and benefits for school districts are given in this article. The relationship of compliance to equity is explored through an analysis of short-term and long-term costs and benefits for students and schools in both minimal and maximal equity…

Until recently there have not been many links to students' culture in the mathematics classroom. This may be one of the major barriers to achievement of many groups historically underrepresented in mathematics, for these students may see mathematics as a subject that has very little meaning or value for their current or future lives. This digest…

Chicanos have been limited in their educational opportunities, as evidenced by their underrepresentation in occupations and professions requiring extended education. It is proposed that intelligence testing is one part of an educational ideology that ascribes the Chicano's unequal educational existence to the group's inability to function…

This CRitical Issue Bibliography (CRIB) Sheet cites resources that give an overview of Title IX legislation and offer information about compliance, litigation, and related issues. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 protects individuals from gender-based discrimination in education programs or activities that receive federal financial…

Controlled school choice attempts to provide choice while maintaining ethnic and racial integration. The following elements are found in most controlled-choice plans: (1) any program that is successful in one zone must be replicated in all the other zones; (2) parent information centers are available to help parents make educated choices; (3)…

A goal adopted at the 1990 Education Summit in Charlottesville, Virginia, aims to increase the high school graduation rate to 90 percent by the year 2000. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reports three types of dropout rates: (1) event rates report the percentage of students who left high school without finishing work toward a…

This ERIC Digest presents highlights and recommendations from a working forum (Britton, Raizen, Kaser, and Porter, 2000) in which participants considered diversity and equity issues in mathematics and science education with special emphasis on research directions for the future. An overview of needed research, gender issues in mathematics, and the…

Comprehensive school reform (CSR) has the potential to help overcome inequities in education, to provide a vehicle for a combination of state and local control, and to allow reform to permeate the classroom. It is instructive and timely to survey the research on CSR models to determine how well the programs are performing. This monograph does not…

This bibliography consists of nearly 500 references to works on equal educational opportunity cited between 1975 and 1981 in "Resources in Education." The documents cited, most of which were developed by urban school districts in cities with a population of 100,000 or more, deal primarily with urban education, school desegregation, bilingual…

The CRitical Issue Bibliography (CRIB) Sheet describes resources related to affirmative action. The bibliography is divided into four sections designed to help provide a foundation for those implementing an affirmative action program or conducting research on this topic. Overview describes resources that describe the history of affirmative action,…

In the early years of the Internet, there was an expectation that the availability and easy access to online resources of unparalleled abundance would increase educational equity throughout the socio-economic spectrum. In fact, research suggests that patterns of technology access often mirror existing inequalities rather than mitigate them, and if…

A review of Knowles' andragogical model (1984) and Pratt's writings (1988) on the appropriateness of learner-centered instruction established that, even though learners may need both direction and support, they can still be involved in designing/directing their own learning in meaningful ways. Adult educators can obtain information about the…

This Digest discusses efforts to achieve financial equity in education. It describes the extent of financial disparity and how, after 3 decades of litigation, such disparities among districts and among states remain high. In New Jersey alone, the per-pupil expenditures ranged from $5,900 to $11,950. Even with such inequities, some promising…