There is growing unease about suspension and expulsion of children at the preschool level. Preschoolers are expelled at three times the rate of K-12 students (Gilliam, 2005). Boys--particularly African-American boys--comprise a disproportionate number of these cases, a fact that has caused concern among parents, policymakers, and advocates alike.…

More than 60 years after the ruling in "Brown v. Board of Education" was handed down, its promise remains unfulfilled. In many respects, America's public schools continue to be "separate and unequal." Indeed, the growing re-segregation of American schools by race and ethnicity, compounded by economic class segregation, has…

Around 30 percent of families across New York State now speak a language other than English at home, resulting in 240,000 English language learners (ELLs) in the state's primary and secondary schools who speak nearly 200 different languages. This report looks at New York State's redesign of policies and practices to better support the education of…

Over the last almost two decades, high-stakes testing has become increasingly central to New York's schools. In the 1990s, the State Department of Education began requiring that secondary students pass five standardized exams to graduate. In 2002, the federal No Child Left Behind Act required students in grades three through eight to take math and…

The "Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965" ("ESEA") is the nation's key policy driver for elementary and secondary education, shaping federal, state and district efforts to promote effective school systems and improve educational outcomes, particularly for students in high-poverty schools. The most recent…

The basic currency of higher education--the credit hour--represents the root of many problems plaguing America's higher education system: the practice of measuring time rather than learning. "Cracking the Credit Hour" traces the history of this time-based unit, from the days of Andrew Carnegie to recent federal efforts to define a credit…

Several Race to the Top grantees are considering the development of video libraries as one element of their larger teacher and leader effectiveness reforms. Video libraries promise to offer "real world" examples of teaching practice that can be used for a wide range of purposes: providing teachers with concrete evidence of excellent…

Throughout the United States, administrators and teachers in American high schools face mounting pressure to increase the academic rigor of their curriculum in an effort to prepare students for postsecondary education and workforce success. Career and technical education (CTE) courses have often been overlooked in the public debate about making…

"Between Public and Private" examines an innovative approach to school district management that has been adopted by a number of urban districts in recent years: a portfolio management model, in which "a central office oversees a portfolio of schools offering diverse organizational and curricular themes, including traditional public…

In "The Transformation of Great American School Districts", William Lowe Boyd, Charles Taylor Kerchner, and Mark Blyth argue that urban education reform can best be understood as a long process of institutional change, rather than as a series of failed projects. They examine the core assumptions that underlay the Progressive Era model of…

The Lifelong Learning Project was a 3-year effort launched in March 1980 to assist educational leaders in California, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, New York, and Ohio in their planning and coordination of adult learning services. These six states undertook a variety of project activities aimed at establishing and maintaining a participatory planning…

This report by the New York State Comptroller states that the state is currently making decisions regarding higher education based on short-term fiscal and political concerns rather than basing such decisions on long-range strategic plans founded on carefully deliberated policies. Specifically, New York has been without a comprehensive review of…

Explores the politics of education in the case of the establishment and reauthorization of a New York school district to serve the special education students of the Hasidic Jewish community of Kiryas Joel. The case of Kiryas Joel illustrates the political power of a single-interest special interest group. (SLD)

Compares the state governance and power structures in early child education in Michigan, California, and New York. Focuses on the informal, dynamic networks of power and influence among public and private agencies and, in turn, between these agencies and clients attached to a variety of interest groups. (Author/GC)

The "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" examines what is arguably the single most powerful authority over the teaching profession: state government. This New York edition of the National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ's) "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" is the first of what will be an annual look at the status of state policies…