This article offers a critique of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) related to the implications for teachers in educational improvement. Through an analysis of the NCLB legislation and accompanying policy tools that support it, the authors explore three images or central common conceptions symbolic of basic attitudes and orientations about teachers and…

Parental involvement is mentioned more than one hundred times in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). In this article, John Rogers argues that President Bush and former U.S. secretary of education Rod Paige have promoted policy narratives of test accountability, choice, and parental involvement that describe how poor parents can spur educators to…

As the chief elected officials of their cities, mayors have a rightful role in promoting the interests of public school students and parents who live there, as well as the interests of taxpayers who help fund the school district. Without a strong education system, mayors will find it more difficult to recruit new businesses, strengthen economic…

Over the last generation, a new politics of education has evolved throughout the United States. Since the 1983 watershed report "A Nation at Risk" (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983), the country's most influential business and political leaders--and, more recently, mayors--have spearheaded efforts to improve student achievement…

In this essay, the author calls attention to a little-studied but critical aspect of school system reform: the nontransparent and sometimes illogical ways school districts allocate funds and personnel, especially teachers. Drawing on a series of studies produced by his Center for Reinventing Public Education, the author asserts that mayors who…

Advocates for education reform are becoming increasingly frustrated with the pace of progress in school districts across the United States, especially those in urban communities. Low student achievement appears to be a fact of life in most of these districts, particularly among poor students and students of color. Results of the National…

Like many urban reform strategies, mayoral leadership in education has both proponents and skeptics. On the one hand, proponents argue that mayor-led initiatives have the potential to transform low-performing schools and to hold schools and students accountable to systemwide standards. On the other hand, skeptics see mayoral involvement as…

Our narrative focuses on the middle passage of the slave trade in the West Indies. Herein we describe why more men, women, and children were imported in the West Indies than other islands. Specifically, our aim was to address how slaves in the middle passage of the triangular slave trade were treated, how they sustained themselves, and how they…

Several decisions of the United States Supreme Court on eminent domain and the impact of these decisions were explore. These decisions involved the Fifth Amendment, which provides the legal standard for eminent domain. We reviewed the history of the Court regarding what is "public use" within the Fifth Amendment. Moreover, what the Court…

The Supreme Court has established that diversity is a compelling state interest with regard to student body diversity in the higher education context, namely medical school and law school. Many educators and higher education organizations view racial and ethnic diversity among faculty as an important educational objective. Faculty diversity is…

Instances of U.S. Black Americans having direct contact with the inhabitants of Central and South America, whose majority populations are not Black, can be traced back to the early nineteenth century. Slaves and freemen were aware of the possibility of a better life in these regions and a few found their way there to experience trials,…

Mathematics teaching is an interaction between the teacher and the learners that leads to acquisition of desirable mathematical knowledge, ideas and skills necessary for applicability in our everyday life. This paper therefore looks at the concept of self-reliance, the concept of mathematics teaching, problems and prospects of mathematics teaching…

This paper discusses the findings of research concerned with analysing the relationship between student attendance to core first year undergraduate criminology and criminal justice modules and the grades they receive in their first summative assessed coursework task for these modules. The research took place against the background of a concern…

The objective of the study was to examine women empowerment and participation in economic activities as tools for self-reliance and development of the Nigerian society. Research questions and hypothesis were used to guide the study. Structured questionnaire was used as the major instrument for data collection. Copies of questionnaires were…

Botswana introduced environmental education (EE) in its school curricula in 1995 to be infused in all subjects as part of an overall improvement of the school curricula. The actual infusion in practice was left to the classroom teachers offering a unique opportunity to compare what they taught and perceived as being important in environmental…