Tennessee's State Board of Education developed Educator Diversity Policy 5.700 to promote the recruitment and retention of educators from different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Accordingly, districts throughout the state develop annual diversity goals that reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of their student population and strategies for…

The transformation of teacher education programs is needed. To be authentic and sustainable, efforts at transformation need to be grounded in shifting power and policy making away from just the university to shared decision making among stakeholders. This paper examines what are seen as first steps towards this objective. The effort described here…

Polling data routinely indicate broad support for the concept of diverse schools, but integration initiatives--both racial and socioeconomic--regularly encounter significant opposition. We leverage a nationally representative survey experiment to provide novel evidence on public support for integration initiatives. Specifically, we present…

The author discusses how an assignment plan intended to keep schools socioeconomically balanced spurs a bitter debate in suburban Eden Prairie. The boundary debate in the 9,700-student Eden Prairie, Minnesota, district has been bruising. Eden Prairie adopted new school attendance boundaries this year based on socioeconomic balance, ensuring for…

Several New England states have been rethinking the system whereby small towns make the key decisions about school budgets and staffing under the banner of local control. Maine already has mandated a reduction in the number of local school districts from 290 to 80, allowing localities to vote on the larger districts. This consolidation, unpopular…

Transforming an entire district from one that is satisfied with being academically good enough into one keenly focused on improved student performance requires overhaul that reaches from end to end, from building to building, from bottom to top. Leaders in Birdville Independent School District in Fort Worth, Texas, learned that applying five…

In rural Oklahoma, the role of the superintendent is often vastly different than that of superintendents in large cities. The superintendent is the leader of the school district, which is typically the community's largest employer. There are a few examples of superintendents who embrace this sometimes overwhelming responsibility and who are often…

Examines economic, social, and fiscal indicators available from federal data sources that can be used in classification systems for rural school districts. Compares the strengths and weaknesses of the various indicators. Recommends that researchers use multiple indicators or alternative data sources to mitigate potential problems of unintentional…

Describes the community of Sarasota County in Florida (Tampa) as one in which the arts are highly valued. Explains that the Sarasota County School Board eliminated the arts program devastating Sarasota County and the surrounding areas. Introduces three articles that discuss the elimination and renewal of Sarasota County's arts program. (CMK)

This is the fourth annual publication of profiles of Alaska's public school districts as directed by the State Legislature. The profile format for the 54 school districts and the state total summary is a 2-page display of data grouped into the following 6 subject headings: (1) background; (2) operating revenues and expenditures; (3) funding…

This "Report Card," third in a series, monitors the progress of each local school system in North Carolina and makes comparison among districts possible. Information is related to the outcomes of education based on student achievement. One comparison permitted is that of current levels of performance with those of previous years. Another…

This document is a compendium of reports prepared for presentation to each of North Carolina's 134 local school systems by the State Board of Education. Each report summarizes student performance in the system for 1989-90 in table and graph form and permits a comparison with student performance in preceding years. These reports satisfy a state…

In Kentucky, high stakes assessment of schools and school districts resulting from the state's educational reform initiative raises the issue of fairness. Should educational officials and teachers be held accountable for student performance despite vast differences in the socioeconomic conditions of the surrounding communities when extensive…

This document is the second annual report to North Carolina educators, policy makers, and the public on the performance of each of the state's local public school systems primarily in terms of outcomes of education based on student achievement. Information in the Report Card makes it possible to compare: (1) current levels of performance with…

Rural work-education councils are free-standing voluntary associations of community leaders averaging around 21 to 25 voting members who are organized by task-specific action committees working to improve and expand educational and economic development options and thus ease the education-to-work transition in rural America. There are currently…