Education Commons^™

Religious Freedom In A Brave New World: How Leaders In Faith-Based Schools Can Follow Their Beliefs In Hiring, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

A confluence of litigation at the Supreme Court raises important, yet potentially conflicting, questions about the freedom of employers in religious schools¹ to hire teachers and staff members. On the one hand, in Hosanna-Tabor v. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission,² a unanimous Court reasoned that the ministerial exception granted religious leaders alone the authority to choose who is qualified to teach in their schools. On the other hand, the Court’s rulings on same sex-unions seem to be ushering in a brave new world. For example, in United States v. Windsor,³ the Court struck down the Defense …

Workers’ Compensation And The School Business Official, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Workers’ compensation laws emerged during the Industrial Revolution to protect individuals and their families from salary losses and medical expenses that resulted from work-related injuries, illnesses, or death. The laws allow employees to receive partial or full benefits temporarily or permanently, depending on the seriousness of their conditions.

In light of the significance of workers’ compensation laws for school board budgets and staffing, this column begins with a brief history of the statutes; examines the components of a typical workers’ compensation statute, along with selected representative recent litigation; and then offers recommendations for school business officials (SBOs), their boards, and …

Improving Behavior And Reading Levels: Students’ Response To Two Years Of Participation In A Teacher Administered Elementary Level School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions And Supports Program, Gregory W. Betts, John W. Hill, Jeanne L. Surface

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The purpose of this quasi-experimental within-group study was to determine the impact of a teacher administered All Children Experiencing Success, School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports program on students’ measured externalizing behavior categories and reading instructional levels. Third-grade, fourth-grade, and fifth-grade students were identified at pretest with moderate (n = 18), mild (n = 22), and low (n = 46) disruptive externalizing behaviors. Students participated for two school years in this highly structured program designed to improve the culture, context, and curriculum of the research elementary school. The null hypothesis was rejected in the direction of student Universal Behavior Screen …

Idea And Alternative Dispute Resolution: A Primer, Charles J. Russo, Allan G. Osborne Jr.

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) procedures are the cornerstone of the provisions in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that mandate the timely resolution of disagreements between parents and school officials.

ADR procedures are in the form of mediation and resolution sessions that are held before culminating in due process hearings. The sessions are designed to be speedier, less costly, and less adversarial than litigation. Subject to infrequent exceptions, disagreements can be subject to judicial review only after parents and education officials have exhausted the administrative remedies under the IDEA. The provisions establish time frames that parties must meet before …

Changing Times In School Law - Introduction, Jeanne L. Surface, David Stader, Anthony Armenta

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

As 2012 came to a close, the re-election of President Obama assures the continuation of state waivers to No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the use of student growth modeling to make teacher and administrator employment decisions, and more accountability measures for PK-12 public schools and public and private institutions of higher education. The inexplicable school shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, once again opened the political discussion about school safety. The reauthorization of Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEIA) looms on the horizon. The U.S. Supreme Court has once again ventured into the divisive affirmative …

Not Second-Class: Title Ix, Equity, And Girls’ High School Sports, David Stader, Jeanne L. Surface

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Title IX is designed to protect students from discrimination based on sex in any educational institution that receives financial assistance. This article focuses on Title IX as it applies to high school athletic programs by considering the trial of a high school district in California. A federal court found considerable inequalities between boys and girls athletic teams in the district. While this case may not be representative of a majority of school districts, it does provide guidance to ensure compliance.

Educator Sexual Misconduct And Nondisclosure Agreements: Policy Guidance From Missouri's Amy Hestir Student Protection Act, Jeanne L. Surface, David Stader, Anthony Armenta

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Allegations of sexual misconduct may prompt districts to enter into non-disclosure or settlement agreements with alleged perpetrators in exchange for a recommendation. Non-disclosure settlements typically limit how much information districts can share with other districts. This process, often referred to as passing the trash, can be particularly troublesome. Missouri's Amy Hestir Student Protection Act provides policy guidance regarding non-disclosure agreements when allegations of educator sexual misconduct arise.

Student Records And Privacy, Charles J. Russo, Allan G. Osborne Jr.

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which became federal law in 1974, addresses the rights of students and their parents with regard to educational records. The two goals of FERPA are (1) to grant parents and eligible students, typically those over age 18, access to their educational records and (2) to limit the access of outsiders to those records. FERPA, along with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and its regulations, also has a significant effect on the delivery of special education for students with disabilities (20 U.S.C. § 1232[g]; 34 C.F.R. § 99.4).

Value Added Methods: Moving From Univariate To Multivariate Criteria, David Newman, Isadore Newman, Carolyn Ridenour, Jennifer Morales

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The authors describe five value-added methods (VAM) used in school assessment as the backdrop to their main thesis. Then they review the assumptions underlying measurement and evaluation, the foundation of all assessment systems, including value-added. They discuss the traditional criterion variable used in VAM: a standardized test score. Next, they challenge the univariate assumptions of VAMs, and argue that a multivariate paradigm of VAM is more advantageous for educators and stakeholders. Finally they describe a potential scenario whereby a multivariate VAM might be implemented.

A Primer On Charter Schools And The Law, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The charter school movement began in 1991, when Minnesota enacted the first law authorizing their creation. To date, 41 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico permit the creation of charter schools, according to the National Charter School Resource Center (n.d.).

Charter schools, public schools of choice, are usually operated as not-for-profit institutions independently or occasionally in conjunction with public organizations, such as colleges and universities. As such, they have generally survived challenges to their constitutionality.

This column provides a primer for education leaders on the legal basics associated with the operations of charter schools. It does not …

Superintendent Search Assistance, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

About 46 percent of school boards conducted their most recent superintendent search without a professional consultant. In 2000, some 54 percent went it alone on their search, according to AASI!(s decennial superintendency surveys. During the past decade, the percentage of districts hiring private help to fill their CEO vacancy increased from about 18 percent to 24 percent. School districts retaining the state school boards association for this purpose increased from 19 percent in 2000 to 22 percent in 2010.

Home Schooling And Sports Participation, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

As the popularity of home schooling grows, its supporters increasingly seek opportunities for their children to access programming offered by their local public school districts. Home-schooling parents have been most vocal in their wish for their children to participate in extracurricular activities in public schools—particularly sports.

Because parents who homeschool have failed in litigation regarding their children’s ability to participate in extracurricular activities, they have turned their efforts to state legislative action with a fair degree of success. In fact, when the Ohio General Assembly (2013) recently enacted a statute directing school boards to allow participation in sports and other …

Collaborative Assessment: Middle School Case Study, Paul T. Parkinson

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Utilizing a participant observer research model, a case study of the efficacy of a collaborative assessment methodology within a middle school social studies class was conducted. A review of existing research revealed that students' perceptions of assessment, evaluation, and accountability influence their intrinsic motivation to learn. A collaborative assessment methodology was developed to provide a means to involve the students in the decision-making processes of instruction: lesson planning, goal and objective identification, assessment, and evaluation. Changing extrinsic motivators like assessment and evaluation into intrinsic motivators was the ultimate goal of the collaborative assessment methodology. The collaborative assessment methodology utilized a …

Introduction To Rural Educational Leadership, Jeanne L. Surface

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Without going too deep into theoretical perspectives regarding social and organizational change (as with, say, Hegel’s dialectic), it can fairly be argued that change occurs when the center doesn’t hold, or said another way, when the status quo no longer serves most people. It is at that point that different ideas take root and begin to direct the process of change. And where do the different ideas come from? Wendell Berry (1987) argued that they come from the periphery, which in the context of the 21^st century, is the countryside.

The Rural School Leadership Dilemma, Jeanne L. Surface, Paul Theobold

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The idea that rural schools and communities, indeed, even rural people, are somehow substandard or second-class has deep historical roots. The goal of this essay is to reveal that history so as to render stereotypical conceptions all things rural less powerful and more easily dismissed by rural school professionals. Consequently the focus is on one dilemma every rural school leader faces: when to speak up in the face of rural denigration.

Making Room At The Inn: Implications Of 'Christian Legal Society V. Martinez' For Public University Housing Professionals, Michael D. Waggoner, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The Supreme Court ruling in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, its most important case to date on student associational activities, upheld a policy at a public law school in California that required recognized student organizations (or clubs) to admit "all-comers" even if they disagreed with organizational goals and values, rather than retracing the work of Moran and her colleagues, who examined related issues such as religious expression in public areas of residence halls, this article analyzes the potential impact of CLS, since membership in campus organizations clearly overlaps with the kinds of issues that students and housing professionals deal …

The School District Superintendent In The United States Of America, Lars G. Björk, Theodore J. Kowalski, Tricia Browne-Ferrigno

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Public education is one of the main forces that make a healthy and democratic society. It strives to educate and to provide the younger generation knowledge and skills that allow children to become contributing citizens in their society. Public education is considered highly significant in consolidating the society and establishing its cultural and economic strength. For those reasons, governments choose to invest a significant portion of the state’s national resources in public schooling.

Taking into account the costs and political significance attributed to public education, it is not surprising that governments establish some formal mechanism responsible for the monitoring of …

International Perspectives On Education, Religion And Law, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

From publisher: This volume examines the legal status of religion in education, both public and non-public, in the United States and seven other nations. It will stimulate further interest, research, and debate on comparative analyses on the role of religion in schools at a time when the place of religion is of vital interest in most parts of the world. This interdisciplinary volume includes chapters by leading academicians and is designed to serve as a resource for researchers and educational practitioners, providing readers with an enhanced awareness of strategies for addressing the role of religion in rapidly diversifying educational settings. …

Has Time Expired For Time-Out Rooms?, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

An issue that continues to raise serious concerns for education leaders surrounds the treatment of students with disabilities who behave unacceptably. In Honig v. Doe (1988), the Supreme Court acknowledged that in such cases, among the procedures available to educators is “the use of study carrels, timeouts, detention, or the restriction of privileges” (p. 325). Time-out rooms—typically small rooms where students who misbehave are sent until they can safely regain their composure—continue to be used in most jurisdictions, subject to state oversight via statutes and regulations (U.S. Department of Education 2010).

Teacher Evaluations And Merit Pay: An Uneasy Mix, David Alan Dolph

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Teacher evaluations are undergoing significant changes in response to demands for school reform and higher accountability. States are now including value-added data in teacher evaluations, experimenting with merit pay based on evaluations, or both. Colorado, Florida, New Jersey, New York, and Texas are but a few states that have altered the way teachers are evaluated or that are incorporating value-added data.

Changes in evaluation practice will likely mean significant modifications in how building-level administrators evaluate teachers. Moreover, approaches to teacher salary systems are just as likely to be altered if merit pay is introduced. School business officials (SBOs) are typically …

Preferred Professional Development, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

As younger superintendents replace retirees, professional development needs have increased to meet new forms of accountability, teacher/ principal evaluation and rigorous curriculum reform. In a survey of New York state superintendents, more than half expressed a preference for local, high-quality professional development workshops so they did not have to travel from their districts. The superintendents also preferred professional development involving systemic change and best practices.

Update: The Supreme Court And Affirmative Action, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Few issues in education have generated more ongoing controversy during the last half-century than affirmative action. Supporters view it as a positive step to eliminate the effects of past discrimination. Conversely, critics speak of race-conscious policies that they maintain create greater problems by failing to address how granting preferences today remedies past inequities.

Although typically more contentious in higher education, affirmative action is the centerpiece of this column because of the impact that race-conscious policies can have on K–12 schools.

Rehired After Retired, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Slightly more than one in 10 superintendents participating in the "2012 AASA Superintendents Salary and Benefits Study" indicated they have been rehired as a superintendent after retiring from one state or another. This contrasts with a finding in AASP

Publicizing Job Evaluations, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

More than 50 percent of superintendents in a nationwide survey indicate their performance evaluations are not made public, while slightly more than a third say their evaluation results are released publicly. The findings were contained in AASA’s 2012 salary and benefits study. State-specific public records laws govern the release of such information. These laws are evolving as state legislatures and courts decide if superintendents are public officials. AASA’s decennial study of the superintendency in 2010 pointed to increased frequency of formal evaluations along with expanded use of performance measures leading to merit awards. Link this with the call for greater …

Fifth Amendment Rights: Questioning Students, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Because juveniles are increasingly subject to questioning about their potential involvement in what may constitute adult criminal activities, the role of law enforcement personnel, including police officers and school resource officers (SROs), in interrogating students is worth visiting.

This column examines early litigation on student Fifth Amendment rights and a more recent case, N.C. v. Commonwealth (2013), in which an assistant principal (AP) interviewed a student about giving prescription drugs to a peer. The questioning took place in the presence of a deputy sheriff who served as an SRO but because the AP did not read the student his Miranda …

Hesitancy About The Job, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Potential candidates hesitate to apply for their first superintendency for several, reasons. Foremost among them are the job's broad scope and their own school-age children.

Sniff Dogs In Schools: Do The Noses Know?, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

As drugs and other contraband made their way into schools starting in the 1960s, education leaders turned to drug-sniffing dogs, which typically work in conjunction with law enforcement officials, to detect the presence of contraband in learning environments. In fact, sniff dogs—or their noses—are a highly effective, reliable, and unobtrusive means of discovering potentially dangerous contraband, such as drugs, alcohol, and even gunpowder from firearms. Accordingly, the vast majority of courts have upheld the use of sniff dogs in schools when challenged under the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures.

The use of drug-sniffing dogs has come to …

Tested In And Placed In: Are Sixth-Grade Boys And Girls Completing Early Challenge Math Coursework Before They Are Ready?, David C. Hemphil, John W. Hill

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the algebra readiness outcomes of randomly selected sixth grade boys (n = 15) and girls (n = 15) who tested into and completed early challenge math coursework compared to the algebra readiness outcomes of randomly selected same school sixth grade boys (n = 15) and girls (n = 15) who tested below the admission threshold but were placed into and completed early challenge math coursework based on teachers’ recommendations to determine if these students, both tested in and placed in, were enrolled into higher-level math courses before they were ready—a growing concern …

Pay By Gender And District Size, Theodore J. Kowalski

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Superintendents nationwide experienced small growth in median salaries from 2011-12 to 2012-13, according to a new study by AASA. As expected, salaries for the top district leaders generally increased with district enrollment. In four of the five categories across the size of school districts, the median salaries paid to female superintendents slightly exceeded those paid to their male colleagues. In drawing conclusions from these data, one must consider the relatively small number of respondents in the smallest and largest groupings of student enrollment in the school districts.

Attending School Matters: Policies To Eliminate Chronic Absenteeism, Charles J. Russo, Carolyn Talbert-Johnson

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Chronic absenteeism is among the most pervasive challenges facing public education in the United States as 1 in 10 students misses a month or more of school annually. Further, approximately 7% of fourth and eighth graders miss at least a week of school per month, whereas an estimated 5.5% to 20% of students are absent every day in some urban schools where absentee rates reach as high as 30% (Balfanz and Byrnes 2012).

As education leaders and policy makers debate the merits of new intervention strategies under the No Child Left Behind Act and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to …