The policy landscape around curriculum selection and implementation is thorny: the federal government cannot mandate any state or local curricula, state policy varies widely, and local schools and districts often lack the capacity to support and sustain detailed reviews of materials and ongoing teacher training in quality curricula. Cultural and…

Policy capacity in music education can be enhanced through understanding the policy-making process and state governmental policy. Three examples of engagement in state-level policy action are used to explore agency, negotiation, and visioning as important dispositions for advancing music education policy goals. First, influencing state-level…

School board members are struggling to interpret laws that govern where and how they do business now that as many conversations take place digitally as they do face to face. As online and digital interactions increase, so too does public concern that officials have more opportunities to violate state open-meetings and open-records laws meant to…

Minority students and students with disabilities are disciplined disproportionately from their peers. Discipline has led to many negative consequences in the lives of youth in the United States, including the school-to-prison pipeline. In 2014, the U.S. Department of Education issued guidance encouraging school districts to develop policies that…

Describes the role of the Wilmington (Delaware) local of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) in desegregating the state's school system. AFT leaders were instrumental in integrating teacher professional development sessions in 1945. (FMW)

Overweight has reached alarming proportions among America's youth. Although the cause of the rise in overweight rates in children and adolescents is certainly the result of the interaction of a variety of factors, the presence of vending machines in schools is one issue that has recently come to the forefront. Many states have passed or proposed…

Delaware was a pioneer member of Project RE:LEARNING, designed to garner state policy makers' support for school reform. This article introduces three papers from various perspectives (school principal, policy analyst, and project coordinator) that target the political culture shaping school reform. Papers highlight mobilization difficulties…

Describes how a realistic, down-to-earth approach is succeeding in bringing technology into a Delaware school district. A written plan featuring some strategic language, a concrete way to find funding for purchases and programs, and providing "change workshops" for personnel were key elements. Preliminary steps, the plan, and some of the…

In the fall of 1953, the Supreme Court of the United States received the case of "Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka" (347 U.S. 483, 1954) that raised essential questions, including whether separate but "equal" facilities in education can be provided for black students in the United States or whether the consideration of…