Rural school leaders encounter an array of complex issues that require legal counsel. Student discipline, contract disputes, employee conduct, special education, and a host of other topics require school boards and superintendents to utilize school attorneys. This descriptive phenomenological study explored the daily experiences of ten school…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of how national board administrators, more precisely, officials at the Finnish National Board of Education (FNBE) have perceived the primary influencing factors, or "regulators", of the national core curriculum reform and the success of the implementation. The alignment…

The authors, Kahlenberg and Potter, investigate the changed role of charter schools and how state boards can assist in the return to the original vision. When jumpstarted in the late 1980s, the charter movement vision was for teachers to experiment with innovative approaches to educating students. The charters would be educational laboratories…

Georgia and North Carolina are part of what some call the New Latinx South, a region where Latinx populations more than doubled recently. Both states have struggled to educate language minoritized students (evidenced by low graduation rates), yet are among the top three states for numbers of dual language (DL) programs in the Southeast. This model…

I examine a unique facet of Japan's public education system: "jinji idou," a mandatory teacher rotation system governed by the prefectural board of education where teachers are systematically transferred to other schools throughout their careers to appropriately staff schools, facilitate varied career paths, and identify future leaders…

The state takeover of schools in predominantly Black communities has not disrupted the racial subjugation of Black girls. Using proportional analyses and Detroit, Memphis, and New Orleans as research sites, we find that the takeover of school districts does not produce statistically weaker associations with the use of harsh disciplinary practices…

School systems throughout the United States need collective healing. The COVID-19 pandemic sent a shock through the nation resulting in many families experiencing job loss, food insecurity, increased financial and emotional stress, and mental health issues for the first time, while exacerbating such issues for many other families who already…

Superintendents, functioning as the local school boards' chief executive officers, play a fundamental role in improving schools. While teachers and principals have been given a prominence in students´ learning outcomes, the perspective of superintendents as instructional leaders is often forgotten. Based on a nationwide survey of Swedish school…

Policy capacity in music education can be enhanced through understanding the policy-making process and state governmental policy. Three examples of engagement in state-level policy action are used to explore agency, negotiation, and visioning as important dispositions for advancing music education policy goals. First, influencing state-level…

Background: Although recent studies provide information regarding state-level policies and district-level practices regarding social, emotional, and behavioral screening, the degree to which these policies influence screening practices is unknown. As such, the purpose of this exploratory study was to compare state- and district-level policies and…

This paper offers a critical review of a report published in March by the Citizens Research Council of Michigan titled "Improving Oversight of Michigan Charter Schools and Their Authorizers." The report argues that charter schools and charter school authorizers need more oversight. Making the case for this position might include…

Background: Although recent studies provide information regarding state-level policies and district-level practices regarding social, emotional, and behavioral screening, the degree to which these policies influence screening practices is unknown. As such, the purpose of this exploratory study was to compare state- and district-level policies and…

With school campuses shuttered due to COVID-19, the rate and level of quality of student instruction varies across the nation, states, regions and even from neighborhood to neighborhood. As the 2019-20 school year comes to a close, state leaders are considering important questions: (1) When and how should schools reopen (after it's safe from a…

The number of students receiving special education services have steadily increased in the United States over the past decade. Students with disabilities (SWD) historically score lower on high stakes tests, and they require considerations beyond academic achievement for promotion. The growing number of SWD and accountability measures included in…

"Improving School Board Effectiveness" offers a clarifying and essential look at the evolving role of school boards and how they contribute to efforts to improve student learning. It examines how board members can establish effective district priorities, and it explores those board policies and actions that result in shared, districtwide…