Spring 2019

In Houston Federation of Teachers (Plaintiff) v. Houston Independent School District (Defendant), plaintiffs contested how teachers were being evaluated using a value-added model (VAM) as part of the districts’ teacher accountability system. The VAM at issue was the Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS), with potential consequences at issue involving teacher termination as per “insufficient student academic growth” reflected by teachers’ EVAAS estimates. In this piece I describe this case, as well as a recent ruling of significance regarding teachers’ Fourteenth Amendment rights as pertinent to this case, but also with broad implications for others using the EVAAS (and perhaps other VAMs) for similar teacher accountability purposes.

Although not discussed much in the literature related to faculty careers and development, increasing the amount of Asian American endowed chairs and distinguished professors is an important issue that needs to be addressed. The purpose of this article is to explore and account for the paucity of Asian Americans in prestigious academic faculty appointments, namely distinguished professorships and endowed chairs in the field of education. This article discusses the nature of distinguished professorships and endowed chairs and the racial compositions of current occupants of these positions. The successes of other underrepresented racial groups in achieving prestigious faculty positions are also explored. In the interest of racial parity in all levels of the professoriate, the following recommendations for policy and practice are shared, including exposing early-career faculty to potential opportunities through intentional faculty development programs, along with mentoring, advocacy, and organizational cultural change.

This study investigated good governance issues in education system and management of secondary schools in Nigeria. The objectives of this study are to examine the relationship between resources management, accountability, participatory decision-making, and management of secondary schools in Nigeria. Three hypotheses were formulated and tested. Quantitative research design was used for the study. A self-constructed questionnaire titled “Good Governance and Management of Secondary Education Questionnaire” (GGMSEQ) was used to collect information for the study. The population of this study comprised all 310 principals and 6,894 teachers in public senior secondary schools in Kwara State, Nigeria. The sample of 175 principals and 364 teachers, totaling 539 participants, was selected with the use of Research Advisor’s (2006) table of determining sample size of a known population, stratified random sampling technique was used to select principals and teachers from the sample schools. Thus, ensuring that all categories of principals and teachers were given an equal chance of being selected. The data collected were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation statistical analysis. All hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The result revealed that there was a positive and significant relationship between resources management, accountability, participatory decision-making, and management of secondary schools in Nigeria. It was recommended that government should continue to ensure effective management of the resources, accountability, as well as fostering the voice of citizens through participatory decision-making towards the realization of effective management of secondary schools in Nigeria.

School plants are indispensable for effective realization of school goals and objectives. This is because the successful implementation of school curriculum is dependent on the school plants, which refer to the physical facilities available in the school system, that are provided in the school. The insurance of school plants serves as a means of safeguarding them in the event of risks. This paper therefore looked at the place of insurance company in school plants in Nigeria. The paper examined some concepts on the key terms, the components of school plants, the advantages of insuring school plants, the challenges faced by insurance company in the events of insuring school plants in Nigeria and proffered solutions. The paper concluded that in the event of damages and other hazards to school plants, insurance companies will be held responsible for the renewing, repair and reconstruction of school plants in the school. Finally, the paper suggested the following among others that government at the different levels i.e. Federal, State and Local should enforce the insurance of school plants for both government and private schools.