In the past decade, Harrisonburg, Virginia, has become a magnet for immigrant families drawn to jobs in the poultry and construction industries. More than 1,600 of the school district's 4,400 students are English-learners. The largest group of newcomers are Latinos, followed by Kurdish and Russian refugees. In this article, the author discusses a…

The purpose of this book is to act as a guide to good governance by exploring its various aspects and the key elements of success. It is intended to be used by anybody who is a member of a board, particularly in the nonprofit sector. This book is intended to help board members maximize their effectiveness both individually and collectively.…

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…

The Council of the Great City Schools surveyed its member districts in the fall of 2008 to determine the characteristics of school boards and school board members in the nation's major urban school districts. This is the second such survey that the organization has conducted in the last several years. The first was in 2005. Survey forms were…

This case study drew upon theories of practice--specifically, situated and sociocultural learning theories--to describe how learning occurs in the routine activities of preparing for, and participating in, nonprofit board meetings. This research had a two-fold purpose: to understand nonprofit board learning within the context of their primary…

In the winter and spring of 2008, The New Teacher Project (TNTP) partnered with San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) to investigate the impact of the school district's policies and practices on the ability of schools to build and maintain strong instructional teams. TNTP's analysis reveals that schools struggle to build and maintain…

Throughout the 1920s and early 1930s, the quality of education for school children in Texas was inconsistent and control of public schools resided with local communities. As a result, teachers' salaries across the state were inequitable among the races, as well as among different divisions within a single district. School district spending was…

The purpose of this paper was to analyze the court case Pontiac v. Spellings, a legal challenge to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act filed in 2005. The methodology was to examine and analyze the briefs filed and the court decisions to analyze the legal arguments made by the parties to the lawsuit. The results were that the U.S. Circuit Court for…

School board members, teachers, university faculty, school district administrators, and even literacy coaches themselves often have questions about literacy coaching. These questions generally focus on several major issues: What should literacy coaches do? What qualifications should they possess? Is the cost worth it? A key question often revolves…

A young person's energy and creativity can be unleashed on the world of politics by a high school government or current events class. In the case of Ray Zaccaro, all it took was a teacher's question. It was 1995, the spring of his senior year at North Babylon High School on New York's Long Island. Zaccaro was 17, riding high with plans to attend…

Formative assessments are crucial for managing all areas of a district--and not just for students but even for the leaders themselves. A school district leadership team is comprised of the school board, forming the governance team, and the superintendent, who is the leader of the management team. But how does the school board track progress toward…

Invariably, whenever "Exchange" surveys center directors about their major frustrations, near the top of the list for non profit directors appears, "working with a board of directors." Boards are either viewed as much too involved--meddling in day-to-day matters that should not be their concern--or too little involved--requiring too much…

Figuring out how to pay for college is a common challenge for many students across the country. But in Pennsylvania, where tuition at public two- and four-year institutions is among the highest in the country, state officials are revisiting a topic that has long frustrated students and officials alike. This article reports that with the meltdown…

The new class of governors, state legislators, and chief state school officers elected last week will face formidable challenges in dealing with the squeeze the nation's sagging economy--and ballooning state budget deficits--is putting on K-12 education. In the November 4 elections, Democrats added one more governor's office--in Missouri--to their…

At the request of the Education Reform Project of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, the National Council on Teacher Quality undertook an analysis of the teacher policies in the Baltimore City Public Schools. Its analysis looks at the teachers' contract, school board rules and state laws. It also collected personnel data from the…