Policymakers and researchers often talk about "autonomous schools" as if there's a single, agreed-upon definition of what that means. In reality, there's no standard design for autonomous school policies, and school autonomy can mean a lot of different things. The policies that states have enacted vary widely in terms of their goals, the…

Policymakers and researchers often talk about "autonomous schools" as if there's a single, agreed-upon definition of what that means. In reality, there's no standard design for autonomous school policies, and school autonomy can mean a lot of different things. The policies that states have enacted vary widely in terms of their goals, the…

While state policymakers are ultimately responsible for public schools statewide, their influence over local school districts has always been incomplete at best. State chiefs, the ostensible leaders of state education agencies, have limited powers and local school boards ultimately control most of the money and staff. As a result, when state…

For much of the last two decades, beginning with the passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2002, the top political leaders have shown concern about children stuck in failing public schools. NCLB required districts to do something -- not enough, but something -- about those schools. Millions of children still languish in low-performing schools,…

Many school districts have recently revised, or tried to revise, their policies for assigning students to schools, because the legal and political status of racial and other kinds of diversity is uncertain, and the districts are facing fiscal austerity. This article presents case studies of politics and student assignment policy in three large…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the leadership practice of an 11-member district team of educators assembled to respond to one of the most comprehensive bullying laws in the nation--the Massachusetts Anti-Bullying Law of 2010. This three-year case study provides school leaders and legislators with an in-depth, fine-grained…

Background: A quarter of U.S. children are bullied annually. State legislatures have responded to high profile media exposure of bullying and increased public concern by passing legislation aimed at preventing bullying among school children. Methods: The RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance) framework was used to…

In the United States, parents have been homeschooling their children since the colonial ages. Back then, homeschooling was a way of life, and parents provided education at home because there was no such thing as compulsory education or mandatory attendance of any kind. Homeschooling continued as a practice until Horace Mann, in 1850, helped…

Spurred both by fiscal realities and momentum from the U.S. Department of Education's agenda for school improvement, local and state education leaders are moving forcefully and quickly to make big changes to districts and schools that have long struggled with low test scores and graduation rates. In Kansas City, Missouri, the school board voted…

Public school constituencies continue to face a teacher shortage as the number of teachers leaving the profession outnumbers the number of teachers entering or remaining. There are many factors that contributed to the teacher retention problem including teacher attrition. In a southwestern U.S. state, local policymakers and school board members…

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…

An excerpt from Morgan et al., v. Hennigan et al., in U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, in which the court found that the Boston public schools were segregated as a result of purposeful actions of school board members who acted with intent to segregate the schools. (EH)

This document outlines the requirements and standards for teacher certification in Massachusetts. Information is included on: (1) routes to certification through Massachusetts approved and/or registered programs, interstate reciprocity, and transcript evaluation; (2) alternative routes to certification through the apprentice teacher program and/or…

The complex interactions which led to the implementation of the court-ordered desegregation plans for two cities in Massachusetts involve not only the courts but many levels of government. The school departments, the school committees, the mayors, the State Board of Education, the legislature, the governor, and the citizens of Massachusetts, all…