This case, set in the high plateau of the Texas Panhandle, covers the years 1998-2004. The focus is on voting rights. The Amarillo board members, like board members in most Texas districts, were elected at large. Faced with a voting rights lawsuit filed by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, the League of United Latin American…

In the broad sense, case teaching is an ancient pedagogy. Since time began, teachers have taught other people by drawing on stories from real-life experiences. In a way, then, telling stories taken from real life can be seen as case teaching. Case writing and case teaching in a college or university setting, however, require specific research and…

This case covers the period 1993 to 2003. It tells the story of the challenges the Fort Worth Independent School District board faced when the state accountability system revealed extremely poor student achievement and a stark achievement gap. To address the problem, the board hired a dynamic superintendent, Dr. Tom Tocco, who initiated aggressive…

This case set in Jacksonville, Florida, covers the years 1998 to 2001. A new nontraditional superintendent, Major General John C. Fryer, focuses on student achievement, but financial needs and Florida law require him to bid contracts for student transportation, upsetting a 50-year pattern of contracting without competitive bidding with more than…

This case describes the experience of a new school board member in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Marta Perez, as she discovers a wide range of ethical and management problems in the school district and attempts to deal with them. Layered throughout the case are challenges pertaining to the school board's roles and responsibilities,…

The purpose of this article is to discuss the value of "Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership" ("JCEL") in teaching the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) standards. In this article, the authors discuss the process of how a department of educational leadership developed an appreciation for the journal by aligning…

This case describes the educational experiences of a foster care student named Chad. His foster parents and teacher notice educational deficits and express concern about gaps in the student's cumulative educational record. The principal and special education director must guide all constituents to adhere to special education mandates and at the…

In this case study, you are the associate superintendent and chief academic officer (CAO) of a large school district in the southwest. The case involves the complex issue of how to serve the burgeoning adolescent immigrant population in your school district. The study considers how a school that is situated in the heart of a Hispanic/Latino…

On the morning of September 27, 2006, a 53-year-old drifter with no ties to the community walked into Platte Canyon High School in Bailey, Colorado, with several firearms, taking a college-prep English class hostage. After a 4-hr stand-off, one 16-year-old student--along with the drifter--was killed in subsequent police action. This case study…

Commitment is combined to classic learning with innovative citizenship education grounded in public debate by the Northtown Academy campus of Chicago International Charter School (CICS). KIPP Academics rely on academic pressure and tough love to help students meet state standards.

A growing number of the US schools, under the microscope of increased accountability, are identified as underperforming on the basis of low-test scores. Yet sustained increases in student achievement are problematic for underperforming schools.

Teachers are not adequately engaged in collaborative inquiry where it matters most, in the daily learning-teaching interactions between students and teachers, leading to failure in developing true learning communities by majority of school improvement efforts. Collaborative analysis of student learning (CASL), a particular form of learning…

No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) encourages New Jersey and other states to use their expanded roles in narrow ways. NCLB identifies state takeovers as one potential sanction for schools that fail to reach their adequate yearly progress (AYP) targets for five consecutive years.

The millions of public educators are working tirelessly and the US is spending billions of dollars annually to solve one of the country's most vexing social problems, education achievement gap and its horrific life consequences for millions of children, particularly of color. The problem is a stubborn one, with deep-rooted impediments to its…

Most educators agree that the primary criterion of school success is the ongoing growth and achievement of every student even in the midst of constant debate about the state of the US education and conflicting opinions regarding the value of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Standardized tests have their place, but computerized adaptive testing aimed…