Mayoral control of public schools is nothing new. Boston pioneered the practice in 1992, replacing elected school committee members with mayoral appointees. Since then, a dozen urban districts--including Cleveland, Chicago, New York City, and Washington, D.C.--have undergone a similar change in school governance that has shifted some or most of…

Locally controlled public schools are one of the cornerstones of our nation's democracy, yet many schools are not preparing students for success. Far too many students are not graduating, and many of those who do graduate are woefully unprepared for college or a meaningful career. Successfully initiating and sustaining meaningful improvements in…

The "Annual Joint Report on Pre-Kindergarten through Higher Education in Tennessee" complies with the requirements established in T.C.A. Section 49-1-302(a)(10). The act directs the State Board of Education and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission to provide a report to the Governor and General Assembly, all public schools, and…

Policy makers at the state and national level would like local school boards to be active participants in creating schools where all students have high-quality learning opportunities. While numerous groups endeavor to make schools a better place for kids, adult leaders rarely seek input on how to do this from their most important stakeholders and…

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 holds public schools in the United States accountable for increased student achievement and adequate yearly progress (AYP). Schools that do not make AYP for three consecutive years are subject to stringent sanctions. Principals, teachers, and students are under tremendous pressure to demonstrate…

More than 10 years ago, the author wrote her first version of "The Power of One" for the "Journal of Staff Development." She described her personal journey of discovering how one person could make a huge difference in the face of what appeared as insurmountable challenges. She described ways in which she had made such a difference and told,…

This paper is part of a larger study looking at the issues involved as two large urban Canadian school boards, in Winnipeg and Toronto, responded to the demands of poor, inner city areas over the last thirty years of the twentieth century. In this paper we focus our attention on the broader stage on which education policy takes place. We draw from…

In the end, six months of management reforms and the hiring of an experienced urban superintendent failed to keep the Clayton County, Georgia, school district from becoming the nation's first district in nearly four decades to have its accreditation stripped. Last week's decision by the Atlanta-based Southern Association of Colleges and Schools…

Facing a superintendent change in 2006-2007, Decatur Public School District 61 in Illinois was already confronting the major challenges of a widening student achievement gap, increasing dropout rate, and schools not meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). From the beginning, Superintendent Gloria J. Davis professed several simple beliefs that…

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the district temporarily lost 100% of its students and did not reopen a single school for more than two months. As it became apparent that the district was not prepared to bring the schools back from such a devastating blow, educators began to see a silver lining in Katrina's dark clouds. State School Board…

There is a crisis relevant to the publicly funded education of Aboriginal students in Ontario. This article, which presents the details of the crisis, analyzes recent policy statements released by the Ontario Ministry of Education designed to address that crisis. By defining the nature of this critical juncture, presenting how these policies may…

This paper describes the use of advisory boards in the development of two competency-based business programs: one graduate and the other undergraduate. Though the programs varied significantly in structure and content, both used focus group methodology to collect comprehensive and relevant input from advisory board members comprised of local…

Education reformers have long questioned whether school boards have become an anachronism. Pointing to promising efforts in Boston and New York City, some have argued for handing over control of school districts to mayors. A review of the research suggests that advocates overstate the evidence and underestimate the pitfalls, but, on balance,…

This paper complies with the requirements established in T.C.A. Section 49-1-302(a)(10). The act directs the State Board of Education and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission to provide a report to the Governor and General Assembly, all public schools, and institutions of higher learning and their respective boards. This report is to include,…

This issue of "Legislative Review" takes a look at the news in higher education from January 12 to 16, 2009. This Legislative Review reports that high-quality, accessible, affordable higher education and a vibrant state economy were consistent themes in testimony to the Senate Appropriations Committee January 12, 2009. Testifying in…