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I think Texas, like many states, are finding it more and more difficult to cut school budgets without letting go of personnel. They cannot skate around the issue any longer. In the words of the spokeswomen for the Texas Association of School Administrators, "There's no fat left."

Because leading schools out of chronic failure is harder than managing a successful school - often requiring more creative problem-solving abilities and stronger leadership, among other skills - the supply of principals capable of doing the work is tiny.

I loved the comment that people don't grow on trees - I guess that great leadership programs will need to start growing immediately!

This seems fascinating to me. I'm shocked that they thought this might work. I think it alludes more to the "return to values" of the conservative movement in this country than anything else. To me, this has the feel of a conservative, religious movement that has made its way back into a school division. This reemergence of "older" value systems might simply be a fear response to how out of control our empire has become and the repercussions of the wealth disparity on the domestic front.

Definitely...because life is segregated, so why not schools???#$%^

An interesting, an extreme, point of view in the historical creation of school boards and the current desire to federalize programs for greater consistency in standards alleviating the need for school boards altogether.

Extreme in every sense of the word, but especially after thinking about this issue over the week, I am not sure I disagree!

Did you read the article on how the Germans form policy? Check out Professionalism & Receptivity to change?

Many whites are taking advantage of the Michigan School Choice programs to move their children from more diverse schools to ones with fewer black students, The Detroit News reports. According to the most recent US census data, released on March 22, more than 184,000 African-Americans have moved out of Detroit in the past decade, most moving to the predominantly white suburban communities and the percentage of black students in those schools has jumped.

Indeed, Republican pollsters have advised GOP candidates repeatedly in recent years to avoid calling for the end of the federal Department of Education, largely because it gives the appearance of hostility towards public education, which is thought to be an electoral loser for Republicans. And yet, here we are. Republicans aren't just criticizing public schools, they're overtly calling for the institution's complete elimination. This isn't something they're embarrassed about; these GOP voices are stating the goal plainly, as if there's a genuine appetite among voters to scrap the entirety of the American public education system. All of this, by the way, comes against the backdrop of Republican governors slashing funds for public schools, and even the reinvigoration of the school voucher movement, which has been largely dormant for years.

I am speechless...and that doesn't happen very often. Though I agree that schools have become a means for a lot of propaganda, I don't believe it is the same light as they do. Wow, so what would the American children do with themselves? Are they going to pay stay-at-home moms teacher salaries? Ha...

State policies on integrating immigrants into schools

A lot has been made of the success of KIPP students and schools. Their formula doesn't seem be revolutionary (longer hours = greater achievement), but their success relies on charter school laws that allow for their existence and provide for their substanially higher per-pupil costs.

Doritos High School....is that where you would like to attend, where your high school memories will be formed? The push and allowance of corporate sponsorship of schools are a response to impending and repeated education budget cuts.

"Some Republicans are so skeptical of the federal role in education that they want to abolish the Education Department." Obama wants to replace the federal metric of adequate yearly progress, known as AYP, with more flexible measures that reward student growth. Yet it remains unclear how the government would force improvement of low-performing schools while getting out of the way of those that excel. Obama wants to replace the federal metric of adequate yearly progress, known as AYP, with more flexible measures that reward student growth. Yet it remains unclear how the government would force improvement of low-performing schools while getting out of the way of those that excel.

In New York, students are deemed "college ready" when they score at or above a certain level on the high school Regents Exams (their version of the SOL's). I took a quick look at the high school biology exam from 2001(I admit-not a scientific analysis at all), and apparently fact memorization is what you need to be successful in college.

States' Rights and States' Wrongs on School Reform

Interesting commentary on vouchers versus school choice. Also the Innovative Schools Fund is worth reading more into...how are these different from Charters? How will they compete with Charters?

This article is just about one high school but it represents the confluence of the many factors that impact public education; NCLB, Race to the Top, reform initiatives, and the achievement gap.

Chapter: Teacher Unions and School Board Elections is very interesting when looking at self-interest in the political realm

The rural school problem is prominent and deserving of immediate attention on the local and state levels.

Deals with the struggle of public service professionals that resist changing the occupational norms that would decrease their power even though it would benefit their clients. To examine the relationship between professionalism and change, data were collected from elementary school principals, local school board members, and lay members of community health planning. Principals were slightly less inclined than school board members to accept change. The least professional of the three groups, community health members, were the most negative about change. The mixed findings may result partially from the spurious relationship between professionalism and change. Two additional variables were introduced to test this hypothesis: amount of "turbulence" or dissatisfaction among clients and diversity of viewpoints within groups. Controlling for the former variable yielded little difference; however, there was a strong positive relationship between diversity of viewpoints and change. Consequently, group consensus is seen as a major variable in predicting acceptance of change.

The source must be considered (Secular News Daily) - but whoa! Ten Commandments posted?!?! I am shocked to see the 5-0 ruling on this one...I wonder if Giles County has elected or appointed board members.

If I had to guess, this policy will have an extremely short shelf life.

Well, yeah. :-)

Local (US District Court) vs. NCLB legislation (US Dept. of Education): A case study/policy analysis examining how federal law plays out on the local level. A school system in Richmond County, Georgia found difficulty implementing NCLB because of conflict between NCLB and school desegregation policy. This was the cause for the federal-local political disagreement.

Influence of collective bargaining on school boards