The TEACH Act of 2002 was passed into American Federal law to give educators guidance for the use of copyrighted material in online courses. It gives broad leeway to a variety of uses and protects educators from copyright holders who do not want their work used without compensation even if the work is clearly allowed under previous provision of…

Due to systemic barriers, Spanish-speaking (versus English-speaking) parents of children with disabilities are less likely to participate in educational decision-making. However, little research has directly compared special education experiences between both populations. The purpose of this study was to explore the differences and similarities…

Although parent involvement is a cornerstone of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), few individual parents of children with disabilities participate in civic engagement to voice their suggestions for the next IDEA reauthorization. To address this gap, a civic engagement training was conducted with 95 parents of children with…

This report describes some surprising shifts in regional achievement patterns in Illinois public schools under NCLB. These shifts show worrisome declines in many communities that were not the original focus of NCLB, and promising growth in some communities where evidence presented shows changes in school effectiveness. What schools and districts…

Two years after the State of Illinois enacted an extensive non-exclusionary discipline reform in schools, 322 key discipline gatekeepers in schools were surveyed about the extent and impact of its implementation. The results showed that a number of core provisions of the reform had not been fully implemented or addressed through professional…

This study clarifies achievement trends that occurred under NCLB and explains why NCLB reporting practices made those trends so hard to see. It concludes by describing important contributions that new PARCC exams can make and warns of new reporting problems that threaten to squander those contributions before they see the light of day.

States like Georgia have brought policy change allowing schools to arm teachers. However, ramifications of unforeseen costs and possible legal issues this could bring are still unclear. Since no school that out has openly armed their faculty and/or staff has been in an active shooter situation it is unclear whether this policy is effective.…

School districts required under No Child Left Behind to provide supplemental educational services (SES) to students in schools that are not making adequate yearly progress rely heavily on the private sector to offer choice in service provision. If the market does not work to drive out ineffective providers, students will be less likely to gain…

The purpose of this study was to analyze student academic performance data from year-round calendar high schools across the United States in comparison to those of traditional calendar high schools within the same states. This study sought to determine if the mean passing scores of students for the last three academic years in four important…

Each year, the U.S. invites thousands of foreign-born and foreign-educated professionals as immigrants and on temporary visas, including academicians. In some academic programs such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics, these foreign-born professionals represent an imposing mass, while in others, they are relatively invisible. This…

In the few short years since its passage in 2002, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has become the focus of many in education, from state superintendents to researchers to teachers. In this Issues in Education we seek to give the reader a basic introduction to the way in which NCLB and its main measure of success, Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP),…

To support states in improving the quality of their Perkins accountability data, the Office of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE), US Department of Education, invited State Directors of Career-Technical Education to submit requests for individualized technical assistance. In response to a request by the New Mexico Public Education Department…