Defines and gives examples of remediation as a process prior to dismissal proceedings, in which a teacher is evaluated by administrators, who identify deficiencies and provide the teacher an opportunity to correct them. Identifies what constitutes remediable conduct, how requirements for remediation are imposed, and how courts review dismissal…

Discusses the effects on teacher salaries and employment practices of several Canadian provinces' cost-cutting measures; emphasizes British Columbia's "Public Restraint Act" and public employees' response to it. (MCG)

Discusses five areas of the school environment lending themselves to the possibility of teacher and student teacher liability: negligence, malpractice, rights to privacy, field trips, and search of students and school property. Suggests specific guidelines for decreasing the possibility of adverse legal action. (NEC)

Provides a brief quiz to test one's understanding of academic freedom. Reviews several court cases on teachers and academic freedom, highlighting the actions of the school, and outcomes of the cases. Includes suggestions for teachers for examining controversial issues in the classroom while accounting for the needs of all involved. (CMK)

A discussion of legal aspects of college faculty efforts to profit from their research activities considers whether judicially acknowledged distinctions between faculty's academic and personal pursuits will apply in such cases of commercialization. Implications for increased regulation of core institutional and faculty activities are examined.…

Discusses censorship in public schools, noting how parents can help protect academic freedom. School districts must develop a policy for selection of instructional materials, and parents must be meaningfully involved in the selection. The public school's role in assuring a balanced curriculum with a free exchange of ideas is examined. (SM)

A study sought to clarify the meaning and use of "academic freedom" in public higher education through a survey of administrators, department heads, and college faculty in Georgia public institutions of higher education. It is felt that clarification of the term should reduce potential for conflict in faculty and institutional rights and…

Analysis of a Supreme Court case, in which university use of academic freedom as a basis for protecting confidential peer-review documents was rejected, explores the general development and this application of academic freedom doctrine. Individual academic freedom is distinguished from institutional autonomy in protection of the free exchange of…

The provost of the California Institute of Technology has urged faculty to inform journal publishers that faculty articles about research done on campus could be published only if the authors and university retained copyright to the material, a radical departure from conventional practice. Doing so would enable researchers to distribute their work…

Today's teachers are increasingly becoming targets of violence, incivility, and tortious acts by minor students. Some teachers have successfully sued threatening students in civil court for punitive damages. About 13 states have made assaulting a teacher a felony. Some tort theories hold parents liable for their children's misbehavior. (Contains…

As shown by a West Virginia case involving allegations of student touching, principals are challenged to provide a safe environment for both students and staff members. Although court decisions generally favor school districts, they reveal the importance of a documented warning, a prudent investigation, and a sound board decision. (MLH)

Before 1980, academic-freedom litigation favored teachers over school boards. As a 1998 case involving termination of a popular creative-writing teacher shows, today's judges rely on decision makers' judgement. Courts view academic freedom as the province of school boards and administrators, who determine how it is exercised. (MLH)

Out amid the weed-choked factory lots and the bare yards of housing projects in Birmingham, Alabama, Steve Orel has become a kind of hero. The 50-year-old Orel runs the World of Opportunity School out of an old industrial building. Affectionately known as WOO, the school is a private, shoestring operation that offers students who have fallen…

"Kemp v. Ervin" examined the balance between the 1st and 14th amendment rights of untenured faculty at a state university against dismissal for being threatening to the institution. Discusses the implications of the case, which strengthens the hands of teaching professionals concerned with pressure by financial and entertainment…

The freedom of teaching around 1935 is compared to academic freedom today. Unfortunately, today there remain serious restrictions on the freedom to teach and learn social studies. (RM)