This case study is a narrative of four major leadership paradigms: managerial, transactional, transformational, and distributed leaderships. Understanding these leadership styles may help both practicing and prospective school leaders navigate better in the complex, dynamic, murky, and challenging waters of educational leadership. Furthermore,…

Horrific events such as the fatal shooting of three high school students in Chardon, Ohio, in the winter of 2012 places tremendous pressure on state and local agencies to ensure that schools provide a safe and conducive learning environment for all students. To help curb school violence, schools have adopted zero-tolerance policies, which often…

Background: State laws and farm-to-school programs (FTSPs) have the potential to increase fruit and vegetable (FV) availability in school meals. This study examined whether FV were more available in public elementary school lunches in states with a law requiring/encouraging FTSPs or with a locally grown-related law, and whether the relationship…

Background: This study attempted to determine whether state laws regulating low nutrient, high energy-dense foods and beverages sold outside of the reimbursable school meals program (referred to as "competitive foods") are associated with children's weight status. Methods: We use the Classification of Laws Associated with School…

Committed to being a charter school with a professional learning community that empowers teachers, New Mexico's South Valley Academy (SVA) staff transformed its state evaluation process into a practitioner action research process (Anderson, Herr, & Nihlen, 2007). While teachers self-diagnose growth needs and play active roles in improving…

A small community in southwest Michigan has been witness to a significant cultural divide within its school system. An influential church has permeated school leadership and in many cases has overstepped the proverbial "wall separating church and state." A fairly high-profile case saw the Sixth Circuit Court enjoin the district to remove…

Parent trigger laws have gained momentum nationally under the premise that they will increase local authority by amplifying parental voice in the decision to turn around "failing" schools. Using Hirschman's exit, voice, and loyalty framework we create two conceptual models of voice and evaluate the promise of voice in California,…

Historically, strong teacher unions have been successful at gaining benefits and security for their members, but they have been put on the defensive by recent proposals for education reform. Charter schools are one such reform that could threaten unions, but there is wide variety in the content of state charter school laws. Using state-level data…

This article examines the cultural construction of the school in Turkey in relation to the construction of Turkish nation-ness. By looking at how the modern school was fit together with a network of interrelated discourses available in early twentieth-century Turkey, the article investigates the ways in which the school became an object of thought…

While functional behavioral assessments (FBAs) are currently federally mandated requirements, public schools have not been provided clear federal guidance concerning what constitutes an acceptable FBA through Individuals With Disabilities Education Act or related regulations. The purpose of this article is to examine recent rulings regarding FBAs…

This study examined the perspectives of home school families regarding the rights, interests, and responsibilities of family and state over education. These families viewed the common good differently than critics of home schooling. They believed the diversity of curriculum and worldview in their home schools positively impacts the common good by…

This article brings to light discourses that constituted the education of Asian-American children in California in the second half of the nineteenth century. Guided by Foucaultian ideas and critical race theory, I analyze California public school laws, speeches of a governor-elect and a superintendent, and a report of the board of supervisors,…

Championed by California-based Parent Revolution, and adopted first by California in early 2010, more than a half-dozen states now have parent trigger laws. The parent trigger, which allows a majority of parents at a low-performing school to vote to seize control from the local district, has been wielded at four California schools. Is the parent…

Since the first charter school opened 20 years ago in Minnesota, charters have been a focus of school reform advocates and the subject of substantial research. Yet the regulators of the charter industry (called "authorizers" or "sponsors") remain a mystery to many. In fact, many authorizers work in isolation, developing their…

This short article provides a legal analysis of the Hale et al. white paper on specific learning disabilities identification. The white paper presents a purported consensus of experts that an approach combining response to intervention with severe discrepancy is consistent with the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The analysis…