Prevention, not detection, is the best way to reduce plagiarism, the author writes. In this article he shares his own hard-won experience in coming to this view. By adopting this new view, some will regain their role as mentor teachers and will not be reduced to policers of plagiarists.

Mr. Johnson has discovered that the higher the level of student engagement and creativity, the lower the probability of plagiarism. For teachers who would like to see such desirable results, he describes the characteristics of assignments that are most likely to produce them. Two scenarios of types of assignments that avoid plagiarism are…

Once or twice each term, the author accepts an invitation to talk with journalism students about current issues in education and how journalists cover education debates. Ottawa's Carleton School of Journalism graduates a substantial proportion of the young people who will soon try to report knowledgeably on a bewildering array of subjects. As…

Overall the past decade has not been kind to educational research. First, some "research" has been subordinated to and corrupted by ideology. Second, there has been substantial questioning of what educational research should be and a fear that the federal government is moving to a rigid orthodoxy in defining what counts as "science" or "research.…

In this month's Courtside, the author will stray somewhat from his usual format of describing a single case. Instead, he will be presenting the details of two separate cases, both of which involve similar circumstances, rely on similar legal arguments, and have similar outcomes. Most important, both appear to carry the same lesson. The lessons…

This article discusses high schools and reform. During the past two decades, school reformers have sighed when speaking of change in secondary schools, saying they were the hardest--and would be the last--nutshell they would seek to crack in making significant improvements in the education of young people. Efforts in secondary schools would need…

The Virginia General Assembly is concerned that "there remains a significant gap between the best- and poorest-performing schools." Even as it acknowledged that most elementary and secondary schools are meeting academic achievement goals, the Assembly proceeded to request that information be collected on best practices used in high-performing…

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 has focused the attention of educators, policy makers, and the public on accountability for performance in public education. Yet many of those who will be responsible for improving school performance lack guidance on how to proceed in the brave new world of NCLB accountability. For the most part, state…

This article asserts that the health of public schools depends on defining a new model of accountability--one that is balanced and comprehensive. This new model needs be one that involves much more than test scores. This article outlines the premises behind this argument asking for what, to whom, and by what means schools should be held…

This article reports that Massachusetts has made great strides in education over the past decade. The author attributes the success in large part to the very factors that have drawn the most criticism: the high standards and high stakes attached to the state assessments. Sections include: (1) The Massachusetts Case; (2) Implementation; and (3) The…

The research reported here is part of a larger effort focusing on how schools in Florida are responding to a new accountability system with many of the same provisions as NCLB. It briefly describes publicly reported information on school performance in Florida since the inception of the A+ Plan, and then, using evidence gathered from case studies,…

This article argues that while accountability is the watchword of overseers, too often it is the bane of the overseen. At its best, it reflects a prudent concern for good stewardship and responsible management of necessarily scarce resources; at its worst, it becomes a form of mindless hector-ing, in which careful oversight gives way to invective…

In this article, the author argues that using test scores as the sole indicator of students' and teachers' knowledge and skills is harming students and driving the best teachers from the profession. Research by the Abell Foundation indicates that clear links could be found between teachers' verbal and cognitive abilities and the achievement of…

Conceptions of how best to educate students with disabilities have shifted toward one of two extremes: denying that disabilities exist or accommodating them to the extent that there is no expectation of student progress toward realistic goals. In this article, the authors contend that both attitudes defeat the primary educational aim of helping…

Just because teacher educators have more letters after their names is no reason they shouldn't find ways to continue interacting with children. In this article the author shares his thoughts on the matter and offers suggestions for how faculty members can maintain firsthand experience in the schools.