"Gerrymandering" is known best as a tool to manipulate boundaries for voting districts, but school districts have long used the same tool to manipulate school boundaries. The author used geospatial techniques--mapping various kinds of demographic data onto school boundaries--to examine public school attendance zones and their effect on…

Restrictions on collective bargaining are spreading. But while reformers are right to question current labor practices in education, they're wrong to believe that bargaining prohibitions will solve the problems. A smarter approach would begin by putting down the sledgehammer wielded in Wisconsin and picking up a scalpel by pushing for laws aimed…

Every community has individuals or groups who manage to find better solutions to problems than their peers, although everyone has access to the same resources and challenges. Those are the positive deviants.

The state of Ohio made globalizing its education a priority. The Ohio Department of Education benchmarked its practices against world-class standards, expanded visiting teacher programs, and promoted Chinese Mandarin language instruction and curriculum development in Ohio classrooms. Numerous partnerships extended and supported those practices.…

Outlines the Madison Workshop Program for staff development, operated by the local school system in cooperation with a local college. This unique collaboration funds nationally known educators to present workshops for local teachers. (MD)

A "Walkabout" program for second-semester seniors at a public alternative school is described. Cited as keys to the program's effectiveness are staff commitment of one-half their workload and intensive and clearly defined student preparation. Students not participating engage in a similar but briefer independent learning project in the…

Describes and evaluates a 3-year, 6-district (2 urban, 2 suburban, and 2 rural) Effective Schools Process demonstration project in Ohio. (PKP)

Describes results of survey of Ohio certified-teacher attitudes toward state education policy, classroom climate, and high-stakes testing. Found a large majority of teachers expressed strong dissatisfaction with educational policy, its impact on classroom climate, and the use of high-stakes testing. (11 references) (PKP)

Reports on a telephone survey of a sample of Ohio residents concerning their views of the schools and their sources of information on the schools. Among the implications was that educators should provide valid and reliable information through the mass media if they want to increase public confidence and trust. (Author/IRT)

Challenges the assumption that bureaucracy is bad for charter schools. Examines perceived autonomy, governance structures, leadership, and perceived culture of community-charter schools in Ohio. (Contains 15 references.) (PKP)

Describes Ohio's efforts (including supplemental state legislation) to implement the new federal legislation on handicapped children and points out implications this legislation may have for all education in the areas of parental involvement and individualization of instruction. (IRT)

In recent years a growing number of state boards of education have established mechanisms to ensure dialog between public school policymakers and their nonpublic school counterparts. Outlines the methods used in four states: Florida, Louisiana, New York, and Ohio. (MD)

Through a series of shifting majorities, the Court upheld the textbook loan, standardized testing and scoring, diagnostic services, and therapeutic services provisions of the Ohio statute and struck down the instructional materials and field trip sections of the law. (Author)

Positive Peer Groups (PPG) is a leadership training program that helps alienated and disengaged students bond to school via participation in school-oriented service activities stressing work, discipline, and responsibility. Students form affiliations with peers involved in the same efforts. Results in Ohio schools are encouraging. (MLH)