Law Commons^™

Post-Accountability Accountability, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Journal Articles

Over the past few decades, parental choice has exploded in the United States. Yet, despite early proponents’ hopes that parental choice would eliminate the need to regulate school quality—since parents’ choices would serve an accountability function—demands to use the law to hold chosen schools accountable for their academic performance are central features of education-reform debates today. This is an opportune time to consider the issue of academic accountability and parental choice. Parental choice has gained a firm foothold in the American educational landscape. As it continues to expand, debates about accountability for chosen schools will only intensify. The questions of …

Inequitable Schools Demand A Federal Remedy, Kimberly J. Robinson

Law Faculty Publications

It is not often that the U.S. Supreme Court admits that one of its previous decisions, especially one that shaped the fabric of our nation, was fundamentally wrong. One such instance occurred in 1954, when the court famously declared, in Brown v. Board of Education, that the doctrine of “separate but equal” public schools for black children and white children was unconstitutional. In Brown, the court overturned, for public schools, its approval of this doctrine in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and established that segregated schools violated the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court also proclaimed that …

Governance Of Steel And Kryptonite Politics In Contemporary Public Education Reform, James S. Liebman, Elizabeth R. Cruikshank, Christina C. Ma

Faculty Scholarship

Entrenched bureaucracies and special-interest politics hamper public education in the United States. In response, school districts and states have recently adopted or promoted reforms designed to release schools from bureaucratic control and empower them to meet strengthened outcome standards. Despite promising results, the reforms have been widely criticized, including by the educationally disadvantaged families they most appear to help.

To explain this paradox, this Article first considers the governance alternatives to bureaucracy that the education reforms adopt. It concludes that the reforms do not adopt the most commonly cited alternatives to bureaucracy — marketization, managerialism, or professionalism/craft — and that …

Perpetual Evolution: A School's-Focused Public Law Litigation Model For Our Day, James S. Liebman

Faculty Scholarship

In celebrating the monumental accomplishments of the new form of public law litigation that Constance Baker Motley and her colleagues pioneered, this Essay reinterprets their paradigm-shifting body of work in a manner that obliges the current generation of civil rights advocates to change direction. In the hopes of reengaging the affirmative force of constitutional litigation after decades in which it has waned, this Essay argues that the central lesson to be derived from Motley’s generation lies not in the mode of public law litigation it pioneered but in the design of that litigation in the image of the dominant form …

Fisher’S Cautionary Tale And The Urgent Need For Equal Access To An Excellent Education, Kimberly J. Robinson

Law Faculty Publications

In this Comment, I argue that much greater care and attention must be paid to the educational opportunity gaps and resulting achievement gaps that prompt many colleges and universities to rely on affirmative action. Increased attention to greater equality and excellence in elementary and secondary education can help reduce or eliminate the need for affirmative action, which is an approach that fundamentally aims to ensure equality. Without additional attention to closing opportunity gaps, the Court may declare that the time has come for affirmative action to end, but the United States will not be equipped to maintain diverse, selective postsecondary …

The K-12 Funding Crisis, Kimberly J. Robinson

Law Faculty Publications

Current discussions about K-12 education often highlight the reforms that seek to improve the quality of schooling. Some of these measures—the common-core standards, teacher evaluation, and, most recently, the Every Student Succeeds Act—undoubtedly have the potential to improve educational opportunities for students. However, what is often missing from education reform conversations is how these reforms can create sustainable changes to the education system. We believe the system's very foundations are broken, and school funding is one of the most pressing issues in need of repair.

Disrupting Education Federalism, Kimberly J. Robinson

Law Faculty Publications

The ongoing expansion of federal influence over education in the United States provides a particularly salient time to consider how education federalism should be structured to achieve the nation's education goals. One ofthe nation's unfulfilled and yet essential education goals is to ensure that all students receive equal access to an excellent education. A variety of scholars and, most recently, the federal Equity and Excellence Commission have offered proposals for advancing this goal. By building on this growing momentum for reform,I argue that disrupting the nation's longstanding approach to education federalism-which I define as the balance of power between federal, …

A Common Law Constitutionalism For The Right To Education, Scott R. Bauries

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article makes two claims, one descriptive and the other normative. The descriptive claim is that individual rights to education have not been realized under state constitutions because the currently dominant structure of education reform litigation prevents such realization. In state constitutional education clause claims, both pleadings and adjudication generally focus on the equality or adequacy of the system as a whole, rather than on any particular student's educational resources or attainment. The Article traces the roots of the currently dominant systemic approach, and finds these roots in federal institutional reform litigation. This systemic focus leads to a systemic, rather …

Reforming Legal Education: Law Schools At The Crossroads, Debra Curtis, David Moss

Faculty Scholarship

In today's volatile law school environment, curriculum reform has emerged as a significant focus. It is commonly understood that law schools effectively teach certain analytical skills, but are less successful in other areas, and often scramble to adapt to evolving aims. This book demonstrates how law schools are successfully reforming their curriculum - and lays the framework to show how all schools of law can engage in a continuous reform model that proactively shapes our profession. It is expected that faculty and professional staff engaged in legal education will utilize this book as a primary resource to guide their respective …

Education's Elusive Future, Storied Past, And The Fundamental Inequity In Between, Derek W. Black

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

On The Need For Public Boarding Schools, Kevin Woodson

Law Faculty Publications

Nowhere is the inadequacy of American public education more striking than in high-poverty, urban schools populated by disadvantaged minority students. Despite decades of legal, policy, and scholarly efforts aimed at addressing the challenges facing these schools, the academic prospects of poor students are currently as grim as they have been in recent memory. Reformers seeking to address this problem have largely focused on transforming public education from within by focusing on school conditions or teacher performance.. These efforts have largely failed to bring about real progress: despite decades of litigation and reform, our nation’s most disadvantaged children continue to lack …

American School Finance Litigation And The Right To Education In South Africa, Scott R. Bauries

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This paper addresses the South African Constitution's invitation to the Constitutional Court to 'consider foreign law' when interpreting its provisions. Focusing on the education provisions found in section 29 of the Constitution, I make two claims. Firstly, contrary to the developing consensus, American state supreme court jurisprudence in school funding cases makes a poor resource to aid the interpretation of the basic South African right to education, regardless of the quantum of education that the Constitutional Court decides is encompassed by the word 'basic'. Secondly, however, certain aspects of these same American decisions, particularly the space they provide for a …

State Constitutional Design And Education Reform: Process Specification In Louisiana, Scott R. Bauries

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

As to education, the Louisiana Constitution contains the familiar general mandate for the establishment of a public school system, now ubiquitous among state constitutions. But unlike the founding documents of any of the other states, Louisiana's constitution also provides for a very specific process-based allocation of the responsibilities for determining appropriations levels in education from year to year.

It is well-known that state constitutions often treat numerous—sometimes trivial—subjects, or contain provisions that seem hyper-specific and statutory, rather than foundational and constitutional, and state constitutions have been roundly criticized (and sometimes defended) for these features. In this Article, I argue that …

Education Everywhere: The Popular Awareness Surrounding Education Reform, Alexandra Manrique

The Modern American

The author applauds the extensive media and political coverage of education reform.

Competing In The Federal Race To The Top, Nathan C. Jensen, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The federal Race to the Top is a national competition between states intended to support education reform and innovation in classrooms. States at the forefront of school reform are eligible to compete for $4.3 billion in Race to the Top grants. Since this is a competitive grant, it is possible that some states will not receive awards, and President Obama assures that “politics won’t come into play.”

2007 Scholars And Artists Bibliography, Michael Schwartz Library, Cleveland State University, Friends Of The Michael Schwartz Library, Joanne E. Goodell Ph.D.

Scholars and Artists Bibliographies

This bibliography was created for the annual Friends of the Michael Schwartz Library Scholars and Artists Reception, recognizing scholarly and creative achievements of Cleveland State University faculty, staff and emeriti. Dr. Joanne Goodell was the guest speaker.

Litigated Learning, Law's Limits, And Urban School Reform Challenges, Michael Heise

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

This Article assesses the likely efficacy of litigation efforts seeking to enhance equal educational opportunity by improving student academic achievement in the nation's urban public schools. Past education reform litigation efforts focusing on school desegregation and finance met with mixed success. Current litigation efforts seeking to improve student academic achievement promise to be even less successful because student academic achievement involves variables and activities located further from the reach of litigation than such variables as a school's racial composition and per pupil spending levels. Moreover, efforts to improve student achievement in the nation's urban public schools--especially high poverty schools--face additional …

Lawyer, Client, Community: To Whom Does The Education Reform Lawsuit Belong?, Amy Reichbach

Faculty Publications

Important education reform litigation is often undertaken by lawyers with admirable intentions. It is too easy, however, particularly in the context of large, enduring, complex litigation where it is difficult to identify the class, much less name and pursue the class's goals, to lose sight of the client-lawyer relationship and the significance of client autonomy. Several recent lawsuits concerning the enforceability of No Child Left Behind exemplify issues that arise in class representation. In devising legal strategies, lawyers must balance the need to address clients' immediate problems with the pursuit of longer-term strategies for change, such as organization and mobilization. …

Florida’S Past And Future Roles In Education Finance Reform Litigation, Scott R. Bauries

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

In federalist parlance, the states often are called laboratories of democracy. Nowhere is this truer than in the field of education, and almost no subset of the education field lends itself to this label more than education finance. Since 1973, with very few notable exceptions, the entire development of the practice of education finance has proceeded through state-specific reforms. These reforms have occurred mostly through legislative policymaking, but the courts have played an important role in directing that policy development.

If one were to seek to observe one of these laboratories in action—to witness the interaction of the courts, the …

No Lawsuit Left Behind, Michael Heise

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Legal Education In The Americas: The Anchor For Hemispheric Justice, Jon L. Mills

UF Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Are Single-Sex Schools Inherently Unequal?, Michael Heise

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Federal No Child Left Behind Act And The Post-Desegregation Civil Rights Agenda, James S. Liebman, Charles F. Sabel

Faculty Scholarship

Despite many deficiencies, the No Child Left Behind Act ("NCLB" or "Act") extends to the federal level and diffuses to the states an innovative system of publicly monitored decentralization of school governance known as the "New Accountability." This Article argues that, given background changes in the understanding of effective classroom teaching, accountability systems of the type imposed by the NCLB can enable willing school districts to build the capacity for school-level reform upon which the ultimate improvement of public schooling depends. It claims further that activists can accelerate the reforms and ensure respect for the requirements of racial and economic …

Educational Jujitsu: How School Finance Lawyers Learned To Turn Standards And Accountability Into Dollars, Michael Heise

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Courts, Educational Policy, And Unintended Consequences, Michael Heise

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Recent school finance litigation illustrates yet again how law can generate unintended policy consequences. Seeking to improve student achievement and school accountability, more states now turn to educational standards and assessments. At the same time, a multi-decade school finance litigation effort develops and changes its theoretical base. Recently, educational standards and school finance litigation converged in a way that enables school districts to gain financially from their inability to meet desired achievement levels. Specifically, courts increasingly allow litigants and lawsuits to transform standards and assessments into constitutional entitlements to additional resources. As a consequence, increased legal and financial exposure for …

"A" For Effort: Evaluating Recent State Education Reform In Response To Judicial Demands For Equity And Adequacy, Erin E. Buzuvis

Faculty Scholarship

In this Note, the Author examines measures recently enacted by New Hampshire and Vermont in response to judicial mandates for education reform. By implementing district reform measures in demographically similar environments, the reform efforts of these two states provide a valuable perspective from which to examine the education finance reform. Evaluating the experiences of these two New England states, as well as those of other states committed to education finance reform, the author contends that successful reform measures must incorporate elements of both equity and adequacy. Specifically, the Author proposes that both states' implementation of a statewide property tax is …

Equal Educational Opportunity And Constitutional Theory: Preliminary Thoughts On The Role Of School Choice And The Autonomy Principle, Michael Heise

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Inadequate schools impede America's long-standing quest for greater equal educational opportunity. The equal educational opportunity doctrine, traditionally moored in terms of race, has expanded to include notions of educational adequacy. Educational adequacy is frequently construed in terms of educational spending and framed in terms largely incident to constitutional litigation.

This paper explores the potential intersections of the school choice and school finance movements, particularly as they relate to litigation and policy. The paper argues that school choice policies constitute a viable remedy for successful school finance litigation and form a remedy that simultaneously advances individual autonomy, one critical constitutional principle.

Equal Educational Opportunity, Hollow Victories, And The Demise Of School Finance Equity Theory: An Empirical Perspective And Alternative Explanation, Michael Heise

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Professor Heise reports findings from his on-going empirical study of judicial impact in the school finance context. The study employs interrupted time series analyses to explore the independent effect of successful school finance equity court decisions on two key outcome variables, centralization and total educational spending levels. The results cast some doubt about long-held assumptions regarding the efficacy of court decisions. The author argues that the results also uncover important clues that help explain the recent fundamental shift in school finance litigation theory from equity to adequacy.

Schoolhouses, Courthouses, And Statehouses: Educational Finance, Constitutional Structure, And The Separation Of Powers Doctrine, Michael Heise

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Efficacy Of School Desegregation, Michael Heise

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.