Richard Fossey

Open Enrollment in Massachusetts: Why Families Choose.

In 1991, the Massachusetts legislature passed an open enrollment law permitting students to enroll in schools outside their home communities. This article describes a study of enrollment patterns under the open enrollment program as of fall 1992. The study compared certain characteristics of Massachusetts sending and receiving districts in those settings in which 20 or more school-choice students transferred from one district to another. This comparison revealed that families generally enrolled their children in the schools of communities having higher indicators of student performance and higher socioeconomic status than the districts they left.

Condemning Students to Debt: College Loans and Public Policy.

This volume looks at the financial shift from student grants and scholarships to student loans, discussing the serious and growing burden this has placed on Americas lower- and middle-class students and their families. It points to the warning signs that this shift may be pushing the cost of the American dream out of reach for many women and minority students and making education a dangerously risky investment.cal development; and Clarks (1995) Places of Inquiry, which conceptualizes the contemporary university from a research vantage point to examine how national trends either strengthen or weaken the integration of research and teaching. These three books provide an overview of some fundamental issues affecting teaching on an international level. Taken together they also reveal the potential for organizational change as a function of teaching improvement.

The Elements of a Good Case

When writing a case for submission to the JCEL, the case writer should always keep in mind the four essential elements of a good teaching case: context, complexity, ambiguity, and relevance.

The Case of Secretary versus Principal Or The Recalcitrant Secretary

In this case, a principal arrives at a troubled school in mid-year to discover that the school secretary is exerting managerial powers usually reserved for the principal. When the principal tries to implement changes, the secretary is combative and resistant. This case provides students an opportunity to explore the dynamics between a school principal and the schools support staff and to discuss the important role that a school secretary plays in a schools operation and culture. The case is accompanied by a brief review of literature on the secretarys role in a school and can be used in courses on human resources management, the principalship, or educational administration.

A Sacrificial Lam A Divided School Board, a Beleaguered Superintendent, and an Urgent Need to Improve Student Achievement

This case describes the confrontational relationship between four trustees on the San Antonio School Board and the San Antonio School District’s superintendent Diana Lam, a nationally recognized school reformer, who came to San Antonio in 1994. The case includes a dramatic board meeting where a closely divided board meets to buy out Lam’s contract, and then, under intense pressure from business and political leaders, backs down. But despite significant improvements in student achievement, conflict returns. Two years after the first crisis, the board, again closely divided, buys out Lam’s contract. This time the business leaders do not rally to defend her.

Acknowledging a Problem Is the First Step to Solving It: A Response to Joyce Annunziata

I agree with one of Ms. Annunziata’s basic themes: many school districts and school administrators do an excellent job in hiring, supervising, and evaluating teachers and professional employees. I am quite familiar with the policies and procedures of the Miami‐Dade County School District, where Ms. Annunziata is employed, and I can attest that the district’s teacher hiring practices are exemplary. The fact remains, however, that many school districts practice sloppy hiring practices and that many more allow incompetent teachers to remain on their payrolls for many years. In Who Will Teach? Policies That Matter, Richard Murnane and colleagues (1991) make clear that school district hiring practices vary enormously from district to district, with some districts doing a much better job than others. Charol Shakeshaft and Audrey Cohan (1995) have shown convincingly that some school districts are not doing all they should do to address the problem of sexual abuse by school employees. It is also seems clear that a complex legal process, with its elaborate safeguards for employee rights, has discouraged some school districts from acting aggressively to remove callous, incompetent, and immoral educators from the schools (DeMitchell & Fossey, 1997). In a recent Montana case, for example, nine years elapsed between a school board’s initial decision to fire a teacher for uncivil speech and the state supreme court’s final decision upholding the dismissal (Baldridge v. Board of Trustees, 1997). Anyone can understand a school board’s reluctance to discharge a substandard employee if its members know they may be launching their district into almost a decade of litigation. Several commentators have stepped forward to defend public education against its critics (Berliner & Biddle, 1995; Bracey, 1998; Rothstein, 1993). Like Ms. Annunziata, all make valid points. Still, the education community should not be afraid to acknowledge what the public knows full well—that many professional educators lack the skill, the compassion, and the creativity to be in charge of our children’s education. Admitting that fact is a necessary step to renewing our resolve to do better.

Courage Under Fire Duval County’s School Board Chair Faces a Major Leadership Challenge

This case set in Jacksonville, Florida, covers the years 1998 to 2001. A new nontraditional superintendent, Major General John C. Fryer, focuses on student achievement, but financial needs and Florida law require him to bid contracts for student transportation, upsetting a 50-year pattern of contracting without competitive bidding with more than 100 local contractors, many of whom have only one bus! Though Fryer moves cautiously and slowly, the local bus contractors strongly object. The board, after much delay, is at last forced to make a decision and approves a small number of contracts that include national transportation firms. But then, within just a few days, it rescinds its decision and cancels the contracts. Board President Susan Wilkinson is forced to decide whether to abide by the board’s vote to rescind or follow the direction of legal counsel and sign the contracts.

Can This Department Be Saved? The Educational Leadership Department at Bayou State University

This case describes the work of two educational leadership professors who have been asked to serve as outsider reviewers of an educational leadership department at a large urban university. The department has a number of problems, and the university’s provost seems intent on closing it. The provost’s view of the department has been shaped in part by Arthur Levine’s Educating School Leaders, which characterized educational leadership programs as having weak faculty, curricular disarray, and low admission requirements. Over the course of several days, the two professors interview the department’s faculty members and review documentary evidence. At the conclusion of their investigation, they disagree about what they should recommend to the provost. One reviewer believes the department should be closed, and the other believes that the department should be saved and its programs strengthened.

Legal Notes When May a College Regulate an Instructor's In-Class Speech? Recent Guidance from the Sixth Circuit

In a recent opinion, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a community college instructor has a constitutional right to utilize the words “nigger” and “bitch” in the context of a classroom discussion in a course on interpersonal relations. This article discusses this case in the context of other court decisions concerning a colleges right to regulate an instructors classroom speech. Implications for personnel evaluation in the higher education setting are discussed.

Burnout: Steve Watson's First Year As An Inner City Teacher

This case describes a beginning teacher’s first year in an inner city school. Steve Watson, the case’s main actor, exhibits some of the signs of teacher burnout as he struggles with difficult teaching conditions and lack of administrative and peer support. The case provides an opportunity to discuss the value of effective teacher induction activities and mentoring programs. In addition, students can relate the extensive literature on teacher burnout to the case and can explore ways that institutions and individuals can reduce the likelihood of teacher burnout. Finally, the case provides a vehicle for discussing the impact of collective bargaining agreements and court-imposed school desegregation plans on teacher recruiting.