A parent reflects on her first year homeschooling her child and the compromises involved in all education choices for our children.

Doniger v. Niehoff, a 2008 opinion by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals—a decision Judge Sotomayor joined in but did not write—provides some clues about Judge Sotomayor’s judicial philosophy regarding the proper role of the federal courts in school disputes.

In this commentary, the authors call upon educational leaders to think broadly and anew about the responsibility that the federal as well as State Departments of Education have for the well being of children and families. The authors detail six recommendations that will help to close the current gap between school climate research, policy, practice guidelines, and teacher education: (1) Define school climate in ways that are aligned with recent research; (2) Recommend that schools routinely and comprehensively evaluate school climate, recognizing student, parent and school personnel “voice” as well as all of the major dimensions (e.g. safety, relationships, teaching and learning and the environment) that shape school climate; (3) Adopt standards for positive school climate as well as school climate assessment procedures; (4) Use school climate assessment as a measure of accountability; (5) Encourage teacher preparation programs that give teachers and administrators the tools to evaluate classroom, school climate and take steps to use these findings to promote a climate for learning in our schools; and, (6) Increase research on the evaluation and dissemination of resources focused on improving school climate.

The experiment of mayoral controlled schools, while leading to the arguably unremarkable student achievement gains, may result in cooling the “crucible of democracy” by creating a less responsive, more insulated governance structure in urban school districts.

Recently, a federal initiative for work-life balance has been implemented. This policy is the catalyst for a new dialogue about how faculty members current (and emerging) address managing the balance of work and life demands. Developing the skills for being successful at managing both begins at the graduate level. However, little research has been conducted on this issue. Oftentimes dialogue about the demands placed on female faculty members and doctoral students is not addressed or is unrealistic.

Recently, entrepreneur Dr. Ruby K. Payne (Payne, 2009) responded to a critique by Bomer, Dworin, May, and Semingson (2008) who criticize her best-selling book, A Framework for Understanding Poverty (Payne, 2005). Bomer et al. (2008) underscore that her work lacks scientific competence. Payne (2009), in turn, asserts that the authors — in their refutation — rely on “social determinism” and are inaccurate in their claim that Payne (2005) does not rely on valid scientific evidence. Payne (2009) also asserts that Bomer et al.’s (2008) use of the deficit thinking model to describe her work is without merit because the model (Valencia, 1997a) has no scholarly utility. In my response, I challenge Payne’s (2009) dismissal of the deficit thinking model. I do so by focusing on (a) the theoretical nature of the deficit thinking model and (b) the applicability of the model in understanding the linkages among deficit thinking, educability perceptions of poor students and students of color, the politics of oppression, the practice of schooling, and school failure.

Speaking before a gathering of mayors and superintendents in March 2009, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan urged the mayors to assume greater responsibility for improving public education. He took the position that mayors can provide steady and strong leadership to raise school performance in urban schools. Secretary Duncan’s remarks came at a time when there is growing public interest in mayoral accountability as a viable strategy to improve public school governance. This commentary aims to address this growing interest by exploring mayoral control in more detail.

New civil rights cases being considered by the Supreme Court bring to mind the recent Seattle and Jefferson County cases, in which Justice Kennedy cast the fifth and deciding vote in striking down racial diversity plans in these two school districts. His opinion managed to side with both the liberal and the conservative wings on different but critical aspects of the decision. This commentary offers an interpretation of social science evidence in these cases that supports Justice Kennedy's novel opinion.

In a recently published decision, a federal court in West Virginia stopped a school district from implementing a random drug testing program for teachers. In a well-reasoned preliminary order, the court ruled that the school district’s drug testing program—involving the collection of urine from randomly chosen teachers--violated the Fourth Amendment. Public educators everywhere should applaud the court’s decision and the protection it affords to teachers’ reasonable expectations of privacy while working in the public schools.

This reply to Ruby Payne’s response to Bomer, et al (2008) begins with a statement of areas of agreement between the authors and Payne. They then state that Payne’s work contains factual inaccuracies and that teachers need higher quality information about economically disadvantaged communities, families, and children. The reply goes on to discuss the disadvantages of educators’ holding deficit perspectives: harm to relationships between teachers and children and to the quality of instruction they receive, as well as harm in the relationships among family members and educators. The authors critique Payne’s use of research findings in her response and they rebut her suggestion that their position is deterministic.

This commentary is on what is at stake when traveling with students in post-conflict cities and non-tourist megapoles. More precisely, it is about what is a stake when they walk the city day and night along arbitrary lines.

Pros and cons exist in publicizing findings from exploratory conference presentations such as posters. Studies have shown that media reports about conference presentations of exploratory work, predominantly in medicine, often omit basic study facts and limitations. The social sciences appear to suffer enormously from media misreporting. The current commentary discusses this topic and the general media sensationalization of exploratory social science research, using one such study that examined the relationship between Facebook and academic performance as a case example. The commentary also notes the media and research community’s response to the example exploratory study and media hype, and provides suggestions for future research acquired from a graduate researcher’s venture into the field of technology and education, specifically social-networking sites and education. Although conclusiveness may never be attained, the impact of social networking sites on college student life should be investigated comprehensively through respectful cross-discipline collaboration and collegiality between novice and experienced researchers.

The author of this commentary shows how the debate about the costs of educating autistic children has its origins in the interstitial position of autism between the ethico-economic models of illness and retardation.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has called for mayoral control in urban districts, charging that urban school boards are an obstacle to school improvement and "a huge part of the reason you don't see sustained progress and growth.” Is he right? Sort of. Mayoral control is s sensible first step for these systems, if pursued sensibly. It can facilitate coherent and disciplined leadership, but proposals should address concerns about transparency and be pursued with an eye to the future. Mayoral control is not a remedy in itself; it provides only an opportunity for smart reform.

Several lines of analysis suggest that peer subculture, at least among Britons and US blacks, affects IQ test performance. By the teenage years, it is so potent as to swamp family and school. For example, in Britain, data for 1980 to 2008 show that the teenage years are exceptional in that contemporary youth have made no IQ gains over time, even though younger schoolchildren and adults have made significant gains. In America, the teenage years show black IQ steadily losing ground on white IQ. Although the role of black teenage subculture is in dispute, comparative data from Germany, where black subculture was absent, showed IQ parity between the races.

The higher education community now has an opportunity—a golden opportunity—to make an important moral statement by joining the College Board in support of the DREAM Act.

While the tenure process is a part of the normal tradition of the academy, it may sometimes be wrought with evaluation criteria that need to undergo considerable change to reflect not only a changing demography, but also diversity of thought—and scholarly approaches. In this piece, I explore how some elements of the tenure process might be compared, on a smaller scale, to how the nation evaluates political figures—in this case President Barack Obama. This piece not only asks the reader to become more reflective and more thoughtful about academic, societal and political discourse , but it also begs that we become more engaged in conversations that may be centered about diverse discourse and paradigms as well as discussions centered on race. This reflective commentary describes a theoretical and conceptual construct, “paradigmatic shift lag” and asks that we begin to consider shifting paradigms as a way to engage in diverse and difficult discourse.

This is a response by Dr. Ruby K. Payne, author of A Framework for Understanding Poverty, to “Miseducating Teachers about the Poor: A Critical Analysis of Ruby Payne’s Claims about Poverty” by Bomer et al. The lens of economic class is used to help teachers understand and teach students from poverty; Framework was never intended to be “an exhaustive tome on stratification in society”—whether that stratification pertains to race, gender, or ethnicity. The work is developed to build human capacity and assist with the intergenerational transfer of knowledge. Payne cites scholarly studies on multiple settings throughout the United States where her techniques have been implemented the past decade. She explains that “hidden rules,” a linchpin of her philosophy, are based on patterns—and all patterns have exceptions. Framework takes a cognitive approach to class based on “situated learning.” The work is at the micro level, not at the macro level of systems.

Ranking athletic potential of high school athletes has been a long-standing practice. More recently, recruiting analysts are being asked to rank middle school students. This commentary discusses the particular impact this practice has on the youngest of these students: 6th graders.

This commentary describes an innovative, action research project called “Stand Up for Learning” that began two years ago.

In Estate of Butler v. Maharishi University of Management, a federal court recognized a cause of action against a private university for negligent admission of a student after a student with a history of mental illness fatally stabbed a fellow student in the campus dining hall. As a matter of public policy, this was a bad decision. Colleges and universities cannot reasonably screen student applicants for evidence of their propensities for violence. If the Butler case signals a judicial trend, colleges and universities should press for legislation in all fifty states that bars lawsuits against higher education institutions for claims arising from their student admission decisions.

This commentary summarizes recent work in cognitive psychology on interest to explain why it is that people like to learn new things, but often say that they don't like school.

After five decades of intensive research, questions remain about the effect of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. The debate can be seen recently as educators and economists square off regarding the recently instituted practice of paying students to take tests or attend school. More specifically, research over the past two decades has consistently suggested that it is not a question of whether rewards enhance or undermine intrinsic reading motivation but rather under what conditions rewards undermine intrinsic motivation. Several recent investigations suggest that authenticity might be the answer. For example, rewarding reading with proximal rewards and inviting students into authentic literacy tasks could serve to nurture the intrinsic motivation necessary to continue engaging with text. Given these findings, this commentary suggests it is helpful to consider the word reward as a verb or an adjective rather than a noun when deciding when and how to offer rewards for reading.

This commentary examines the relationship between the current economic crisis and the state of Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

In this commentary the author discusses three types of creativity, and how they can be fostered.