This brochure presents state statistics; Alabama public schools 2009-10; Alabama State Board of Education members; financial data; public school size and enrollment, 2009-10 school year; transportation; school meals; school personnel, 2009-2010; graduation requirements; student assessment; additional enrollment; and dropouts in school year 2008-09.

The movement to strengthen the nation's workforce by redefining what all students need to learn has profound implications for the design of state assessment systems. The confluence of events--the change in the national and international climate, acknowledgment of long-standing inequities in education opportunity and achievement, and the…

Education management organizations, or EMOs, emerged in the early 1990s in the context of widespread interest in so-called market-based school reform proposals. Wall Street analysts coined the term EMO as an analogue to health maintenance organizations (HMOs). Proponents of EMOs claim that they bring a much needed dose of entrepreneurial spirit…

This brochure presents state statistics; Alabama public schools 2007-08; Alabama State Board of Education members; financial data; public school size and enrollment; transportation; school meals; school personnel, 2007-2008; graduation requirements; student assessment; additional enrollment; and dropouts, 2006-07.

Authorizers must decide whether a proposed school should be allowed to open and whether it should be required to close. To enable authorizers to serve as quality gatekeepers for the sector, state policy must give authorizers clear power to deny low-quality charter school applications and to close charter schools that fail to meet expectations. At…

This study explored the perspectives of 350 California superintendents from various-sized school districts in relation to their ability to support student learning while addressing the numerous and complex personnel, social, and economic challenges faced by schools. Specifically, this study investigated the attitudes and opinions of district…

Data analysis is critical to educational planning. Determining the number of school leavers is crucial for a school board when planning for interventions and supports. In researching the number of early school leavers in the province of Prince Edward Island, the method in which the data were reported affected the rates. Two critical considerations…

This paper seeks to ascertain the attitudes to, and work on, English school boards of clergymen from the three main Churches which had taken an active interest in education in England in the nineteenth century--the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church and the Wesleyan Methodist Church. Were the clergy "the enemy within",…

"Alabama Education News" is published monthly except for June, July, and December by the Alabama Department of Education. This publication, authorized by Section 16-2-4 of the "Code of Alabama", as recompiled in 1975, is a public service of the Alabama Department of Education designed to inform citizens and educators about…

Superintendents and school boards should get the most accurate information they can when making policy decisions--and that means data, not anecdotes and impressions. This article discusses factors to consider in conducting a survey. A good survey starts with the basics: Ask the right questions of a good sampling of the defined population; take…

In this article, the author discusses the importance of "field research" at Marlboro School in southern Vermont. Field research began as a way to expose backwoods kids to the wider world. The Marlboro School Board recognized the value of getting these kids down off the mountain, of learning about other people and places, and of tying…

This paper examines the beginnings of courses of teacher training for teachers in technical and further education in England. First the development of the technical education sector and its distinctive part-time nature is traced, alongside the activities of the three associations representing the colleges and their staffs. The views of these on…

Worthington, Ohio, has deep library roots. A library has been part of its history since the planning by settlers before the city's birth in 1803. Among the treasures brought by James Kilbourne and the Scioto Company from Connecticut to the new, planned community they built was a collection of books for their new subscription library. The books…

The author describes his initial introduction to school board service. The historical context in which the author became a school board member is described as a means of highlighting the challenges that he faced as a new board member as well as the challenges that public education faced in the early and mid 1980s in a southern state. Stories and…

This compendium of narrative and statistical information is an overview of the Oregon University System (OUS) and is produced every two years. The introduction includes a mission and vision statement, OUS Governance Change Proposal, a listing of OUS campuses and centers, a roster of the members of the State Board of Higher Education, and Access…