Blog Archives

Special Education Law Symposium

2/23/2015

The 40th Anniversary of the IDEA: The Past is Prologue
June 21 – June 26, 2015

Lehigh University’s intensive one-week institute provides a practical analysis of legislation, regulations, and case law relating to the education of students with disabilities. The symposium is designed for special education coordinators and teachers, principals, psychologists, parent advocates, attorneys (on both sides), hearing officers, state officials, and other individuals interested in legal literacy concerning the education of students with disabilities.

The program offers two parallel tracks, one for basic that offers in-depth foundation knowledge about the IDEA and Section 504: Eligibility, FAPE, LRE, Student Discipline, and Remedies. The other track is for advanced participants, offering brand new “hot topics”: Settlement Process, Exiting Special Education, “Meaningful” Parental Participation, Inadequate IEP Implementation as a FAPE Denial, Transition Services, Noncustodial Parent Issues, and State Complaint Resolution Process.

The experienced program faculty features attorneys Laura Anthony (Ohio), Edward Bauer (Florida), Maria Blaeuer (Washington, DC), Esther Canty-Barnes (New Jersey), Andrew Cuddy (New York), Laura Gillis (Massachusetts), Zvi Greismann (Maryland), Dana Jonson (Connecticut), Michael Joyce (Massachusetts), Bernadette Laughlin (Ohio), Isabel Machado New Jersey), Deborah Mattison (Alabama), Kevin McDowell (Indiana), Michael Stafford (Delaware), and—from Pennsylvania--Andrew Faust, Joshua Kershenbaum, Dennis McAndrews, Gabrielle Sereni, and Dr. Perry Zirkel.

The symposium begins on Sunday evening with a dinner and keynote lecture by Dr. Melody Musgrove, Director, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), U.S. Department of Education. The symposium concludes on Friday with Dr. Zirkel’s National Case Law Update and Crystal Ball.

The workshop is offered for graduate and continuing education credit. Weekly and daily options are available. Full information is available on the symposium website: coe.lehigh.edu/law. For any questions, email or call Shannon Weber or Donna Johnson at [email protected] or (610) 758-5557.

new book

2/18/2015

2014 Supplement to A Digest of Supreme Court Decisions Affecting Education, 5th Edition

By Perry A. Zirkel and Mark F. Walsh
(2014, Education Law Association)

This supplement to A Digest of Supreme Court Decisions Affecting Education, Fifth Edition (Perry A. Zirkel, 2009), like the full volume, is designed as a ready reference, not as legal analysis. It provides a current and concise set of individual case summaries of United States Supreme Court decisions from late 2009 through June 2014. Twenty-nine case summaries are specific to decisions that directly affect the governance, staff, and/or students in K-12 public and private schools. Contents supplement the full volume’s complete canvassing of more than 350 decisions from the start of the 20th century through mid-2009. Categories include church-state relationships in education, student rights and responsibilities, employee rights and responsibilities, discrimination (disability, national origin, race, sex); and special civil right rulings.

new book

2/11/2015

Learning-Focused Leadership in Action: Improving Instruction in Schools and Districts

by Michael S. Knapp, Meredith I. Honig, Margaret L. Plecki, Bradley S. Portin, & Michael A. Copland
(2014, Routledge)

In an educational context where school and district performance is of increasing focus, it’s essential for leaders at all levels of the educational system to focus on improving student performance. This volume zeros in on a promising set of strategies and practices for all leaders to motivate, support, and sustain learning in contemporary schools. Learning-Focused Leadership in Action explores what it means for educational leadership to be "learning-focused," what this looks like in practice at both the school and district level, and how such leadership changes can be set in motion. Drawing on extensive case study research in schools and districts that are making progress on learning improvement, this volume explores how leaders at all levels of the educational system can productively seek to improve the quality of learning opportunities and student performance, no matter how challenging the circumstances.

new book

2/11/2015

From Policy to Practice: Sustainable Innovations in School Leadership Preparation and Development

by Karen L. Sanzo
(2014, Information Age Publishing)

The official book series of the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) The School Leadership Program (SLP) is a federal grant sponsored by the United States Department of Education. A hallmark of the grant is the connectivity between various agencies to provide quality leadership preparation and development programs for aspiring and current school leaders. These collaborative efforts involve community and educational stakeholders including districts, universities, city agencies, not-for-profit entities, foundations, private academic organizations, and others involved in the development of school leaders. Since its inception in 2002, over one hundred grants have been funded. This edited book’s purpose is to share innovative, research-based practices from the federally funded grants that are sustainable after the life of the grant and are able to be used throughout the field for preparing and developing aspiring and current school leaders. This book features the work of current and past grantees around their innovative practices and lessons learned about school leadership preparation and development, especially around the issue of sustainability of these practices upon completion of the grant. SLP Grantees share practical, usable lessons learned from their experiences with the grants, based on their research, project data, and practical experience.

new book

2/11/2015

ADVANCING EQUITY AND ACHIEVEMENT IN AMERICA'S DIVERSE SCHOOLS: INCLUSIVE THEORIES, POLICIES, AND PRACTICESNEW BOOK

Edited by Camille M. Wilson & Sonya Douglass Horsford
(2014, Routledge)

Advancing Equity and Achievement in America’s Diverse Schools illustrates how educators, students, families and community partners can work in strategic ways to build on social, cultural, and ethnic diversity to advance educational equity and achievement. By drawing on the latest data on demographic change, constructions of culture and cultural difference, and the politics of school reform in urban, rural, and suburban school communities, this volume looks toward solutions and strategies for meaningful educational improvement.

Contributors consider both the diversity of youth and families served in public schools, and the culture of U.S. schooling, highlighting the influence of policy and reform agendas; students’ identities and agency; experiences and approaches of diverse educators; and the workings of effective school partnerships. Chapters also focus on those often overlooked in educational scholarship such as Native Americans, students experiencing poverty and/or homelessness, Muslim students, students with special needs, and students and educators who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, or queer. In all, this edited collection stresses the need for high quality education that is inclusive, culturally responsive and unifying so all students can experience academic success. This book is a meaningful resource for educators, policymakers, and community-based leaders interested in doing such transformative work.

new book

2/11/2015

Bourdieu for Educators: Policy and Practice

By Fenwick W. English & Cheryl R. Bolton
(2015, SAGE Publications, Inc.)

Bourdieu for Educators: Policy and Practice, brings the revolutionary research and thinking of Pierre Bourdieu (1930-2002) of France to public educational leaders in North America, Canada, Australia, and the U.K. This text brings Bourdieu’s corpus into the arena of elementary and secondary educational reform and change, and offers policy, research, and practice discussions. Authors Fenwick W. English and Cheryl L. Bolton use Bourdieu to challenge the standards movement in different countries, the current vision of effective management, and the open market notion connecting pay to performance. The text shows that connecting pay to performance won’t improve education for the poorest group of school students in the U.S., Canada, or the U.K., regardless of how much money is spent trying to erase the achievement gap. The authors layout the bold educational agenda of Pierre Bourdieu by demonstrating that educational preparation must take into account larger socioeconomic-political realities in order for educational change and reform to make an impact.

New book

2/11/2015

Shifting to Fit: The Politics of Black and White Identity in School Leadership (Educational Leadership for Social Justice)

By Carol A. Mullen & Kim Robertson
(2014, Information Age Publishing)

While social identity challenges probably confront all school administrators, the authors focus on a doubly marginalized leadership population-Black female principals-whose experiences are rarely tapped. Based on lessons from this study and the literature reviewed, the authors think that leadership preparation programs should give prospective administrators opportunities to gain knowledge and develop skills relevant to navigating their leadership identities. In the age of accountability, and with the pressures placed on the education system to ensure the success of all students, school leaders are under constant scrutiny. The appearance, speech, body language, and interactions of principals with students, parents, teachers, and community members are dissected. Stretching to satisfy expectations, many principals find themselves trying to conform to a predefined image. Work pressures like these prove immeasurably intense for many Black women. Society has subscribed to certain beliefs about different groups, and these beliefs affect the roles, responsibilities, and identities of the individuals. They can have a positive or negative influence. Many principals have created professional identities that they have fine-tuned and learned to steer. Trial and error has helped them learn identity-fitting techniques, while other principals may still be learning how to effectively manage people, address supporters and nonsupporters, and be politically savvy. Regardless of how they develop their identity, principals work toward inventing and branding themselves, fulfilling public identities (e.g., caregiver) and trying out new identities, such as commander-and-chief. Black female principals must navigate their identities as bicultural beings with different stakeholder groups and within work spaces that are traditionally geared to monocultural White males.

A volume in Educational Leadership for Social Justice Series Editor Jeffrey S. Brooks, University of Idaho, Denise E. Armstrong, Brock University; Ira Bogotch, Florida Atlantic University; Sandra Harris, Lamar University; Whitney H. Sherman, Virginia Commonwealth University; George Theoharis, Syracuse University

Division A Scholar Share

The 40th Anniversary of the IDEA: The Past is PrologueJune 21 – June 26, 2015

2014 Supplement to A Digest of Supreme Court Decisions Affecting Education, 5th Edition

Learning-Focused Leadership in Action: Improving Instruction in Schools and Districts

From Policy to Practice: Sustainable Innovations in School Leadership Preparation and Development

Bourdieu for Educators: Policy and Practice

Shifting to Fit: The Politics of Black and White Identity in School Leadership (Educational Leadership for Social Justice)

Archives

The 40th Anniversary of the IDEA: The Past is Prologue
June 21 – June 26, 2015