Detrimental side effects of the politics of localism include socioeconomic and racial inequalities across fragmented contiguous school districts. Inequality follows patterns of neighborhood segregation and suburban expansion. Some regions approach these issues through collaborative models of cross-district school choice that focus shared resources…

This article examines the legal and political significance of teacher unionization in rural and suburban school districts between 1960 and 1975. While most historians focus on the growth of unions in urban areas, strikes in outlying districts played a determinative role in the development of public sector labor law, particularly in the arbitration…

Since 2005, the AISD Central Office Work Environment Survey has been conducted to gather information about working conditions. The following report presents the survey results for Spring 2013 for AISD central office employees in the Chief Financial Office. Separate reports were published for each central office group.

The performance of public schools and the achievement of their students influence many important outcomes beyond the classroom, including one that may seem surprising: health. Studies consistently show a strong correlation between educational level and health over a lifetime, even after controlling for demographic characteristics such as income.…

In 2006, the Anchorage School District implemented a school wellness policy to address the problem of obesity among its elementary-aged students. We assessed whether the addition of this policy is effective in protecting or preventing students from becoming overweight/obese over time. The methods involved following two cohorts of students for 5…

How policies get translated and enacted by school districts frame how students experience reforms associated with federal law. This qualitative case study of a Northern California school district explores the importance of integrating homeless student initiatives within all aspects of the district functioning. Drawing from the equity framework of…

The Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004 and, more recently, the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 required all school districts participating in the federal Child Nutrition Programs (e.g., National School Lunch Program, School Breakfast Program, Special Milk Program, Afterschool Snack Program) to adopt and implement a local…

The aim of the present research is to investigate a comparison between the effect of cooperative learning teaching method and lecture teaching method on students' learning and satisfaction level. The research population consisted of all the fourth grade elementary school students of educational district 4 in Shiraz. The statistical population…

Background: Via the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA), stronger accountability proponents are now knocking on the doors of the colleges of education that prepare teachers and, many argue, prepare teachers ineffectively. This is raising questions about how effective and necessary teacher education programs indeed are. While research…

Background: In 2002, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that schools adopt policies that reduce exposure of children to ultraviolet radiation to prevent skin cancer. We report here the development of a school sun-safety policy measure and baseline descriptive statistics from the assessment of written policies collected…

Historically power to govern public schools has been delegated to local school boards. However, this arrangement of power has been shifting over the past half century and increasingly, local school boards are targeted as ineffective and antiquated. Teach For America (TFA), typically examined for its placement of teachers, also seeks to develop…

The purpose of this study was to determine with whom Turkish and Danish school principals engage in reflective practice and how this interaction helps to develop them as reflective practitioners. A phenomenological approach was followed in the study. Data were collected from 37 school principals (24 from Istanbul and 13 from Copenhagen) who were…

In 2012, Canadian media coverage on Bill 13--an Ontario legislative proposal to require all publicly funded schools to support Gay-Straight Alliances as a means of addressing issues concerning bullied lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students--instigated a divisive exchange among representatives of the Ontario Catholic school sector.…

Purpose: This article examines factors that affect school board policy making about student diversity within two southern urban-suburban school districts experiencing changing demographics: Jefferson County Public Schools and the Wake County Public School System. Both districts have a history of voluntary integration efforts, and research shows…

How are English texts selected to teach students from culturally diverse backgrounds in Australia and England? The English curricula in both countries aim for students to read and interpret meanings through texts, while learning about their culture, and that of cultural others. However, the current list of prescribed texts in both curricula are…