This article describes concrete ways music teachers might engage in policy at the school level and how such engagements strengthen our work and our schools. By making decisions about where to build bridges to policies that further our work and where to buffer from those that impede our vision, we as teachers assert greater control in policy making…

Recent events in the United States have made it clear that all institutions must examine their system and engage in social change. Educators are positioned to be social advocates (with the proper training), who play a unique role in helping to implement policies that promote social justice and equity, especially for Black students in the…

Little research explores the relative influence of various stakeholders on school discipline policy. Using data from the SASS and ordered logistic regression, this study explores such influence while assessing variation across schools types and changes over time. Principals consistently rate themselves and teachers as the most influential…

This case study focuses on a 2008 incident where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) vans appeared near a K-5 elementary school. It was the first time school personnel experienced the impact of federal immigration agents policing illegality in their school community, and the event set off a chain of decision-making choices as to how…

In this qualitative case study, we investigate teachers' appropriation of language policy at one urban elementary school in Illinois. Recognizing classroom teachers' central role in the education of English learners, we probe teachers' policy appropriation, or how bilingual educators take state-, district-, and school-level policies and…

Social networking tools offer opportunities for innovative, participative pedagogical practice within traditional institutional frameworks. However, tensions continue to develop within this space: between creativity and security, personal and professional identity, privacy and openness. We argue that iSchools are uniquely positioned to create…

The 1999 Academic Senate for California Community Colleges paper, "The Role of Academic Senates in Enrollment Management", presented principles for effective faculty participation in developing policies and making decisions that affect course offerings. In 2007, an Academic Senate resolution called for an update to that paper, to provide…

The trend toward teacher participation in policy making is the result of good practice and research over many years. Classic, bureaucratic approaches to making decisions are being replaced by collaborative efforts. There are rules to determine appropriate circumstances for encouraging teacher participation. Determining how and when to involve…

Glendale Community College (GCC) has experienced an expansion of study-abroad courses and is contemplating increasing the offerings still further. When the courses were few in number, little college supervision was exercised over the logistical arrangements, the courses were approved as part of the regular curriculum, and the individual instructor…

Get-tough discipline policies may contribute to student misbehavior in school. Educators may also contribute by humiliating students who fail, unnecessarily complicating discipline policies, enforcing rules arbitrarily and inconsistently, punishing unfairly, or using double standards for teachers and students. The best discipline programs are…

An elementary school principal designed and implemented a practicum study to improve the homework performance of junior high students. Goals of the practicum were to: (1) decrease the number of students who received failing grades due to incomplete or missing homework; and (2) establish a district homework policy which would provide a guideline…

This paper provides a framework for analyzing teachers' content decisions and for determining the extent to which they are influenced by state/district policies. Examples of research based on this framework are presented in the area of elementary school mathematics. Content decisions are defined as decisions of how much time will be devoted to a…

The disciplinary policy at Chapelle Elementary School in Ypsilanti (Michigan), developed with staff participation, classifies some student behavior as "unacceptable" or "inappropriate." Either behavior requires the teacher to fill out a pink slip and send it with the student to the principal's office, but only unacceptable…

This publication on reviewing existing vocational education programs is the third in the Self-Help series of five booklets designed for Alaska administrators and teachers to improve vocational services provided to handicapped pupils. It begins with a checklist of implications for administrators and teachers. Reasons for program review and some…