An interview with Harold V. Webb, retiring executive director of the National School Boards Association, concerning his views of the changes that have taken place during his 20 years of experience with the association. (IRT)

In February 1899, the Committee of Physical Culture of the Chicago Public School Board approved an intensive "anthropometric" study of all children enrolled in the city's public schools. The study was a detailed attempt to measure the height, weight, strength, lung capacity, hearing, and general fitness of Chicago's student population.…

Many administrators and teachers believe they already are doing inclusion. However, if one will look closely at the national statistics from the U.S. Department of Education, more than one million students are denied access to the general education curriculum and instruction, and many more have access in name only. In this article, the authors…

For the last decade, small learning communities (SLCs) and small schools have dominated the education landscape as cures for large comprehensive high schools' failings: high dropout rates and graduates unprepared for postsecondary careers and college. Recently, redesign efforts have begun to falter in light of evaluations showing stalled…

The author examines how although school board governments lack formal mechanisms for channeling conflict, they compensate with an informal mechanism known as receptivity. Competitive elections are an institutional mechanism that support this receptivity. (DE)

Discusses a study of school districts to identify the extent to which specific areas are included in school board policy manuals. Includes conclusions and recommendations as well as the questionnaire used in the survey. (JOW)

The "right" policies should differ for each board and should consist of lists of priorities for each year. The lists should grow directly from continuing diagnosis of the learning and living environment in each school district. (Author/IRT)

The phenomenon of "sexting," or forwarding nude or seminude photographs of other students in schools via cell phone or other electronic media, is occurring with regularity. Administrators and boards of education struggle with disciplining students for such actions when policies and procedures have not kept pace with the rapid changes in…

In Ireland, where education at both primary and second level is overwhelmingly denominational in character, patronage is exercised, in the main, by religious patrons. This article is an introspective analysis of current legal issues as they face one patron and schools under his patronage; it looks at the intersection of civil law with Church law;…

Offers suggestions on how to update a board's policy manual. (IRT)

A brief discussion of the new NSBA statement on official beliefs and policies. Provides guidelines in five major areas of concern: (1) control and support of public schools, (2) Federal assistance to education, (3) responsibilities of local school boards, (4) the educational program, and (5) NSBA's relationships with school boards and State school…

Leadership in schools matters today more than ever, since school leaders are faced with leading schools through an era of profound social change that has required fundamental rethinking of what schools do and how they do it. The challenges facing educational leadership have grown tremendously in recent years because of increased public…

This article reports the findings of a snapshot study of the superintendency conducted by the American Association of School Administrators (AASA). The findings revealed that superintendents were evaluated highly by their boards, but the number of leaders who received the highest ratings have declined during the past six years. The report, which…

School districts are both big businesses and a form of local governance that is part of American democracy. When a crisis makes a district's democratic face relevant, the organization will experience a dilemma that does not occur in business-only organizations. This study examines the public meetings of a school board in the western United States…