Do School Board Governance Best Practices Improve District Performance? Testing the Key Work of School Boards in Wisconsin

The most prominent set of school board governance best practices used in the United States is the National School Boards Association’s (NSBA’s) Key Work of School Boards. In this article, we operationalize adherence to the Key Work of School Boards with multiple survey items answered by Wisconsin school board members. Using multivariate regression models, we find that adherence to the best practices results in improved achievement in districts represented by board members who have served for five or more years. The findings support the idea that school board governance behaviors are linked to district-level academic outcomes.     

Pushing the Boundaries of Education: Evaluating the Impact of Second Step®: A Violence Prevention Curriculum with Psychosocial and Non-Cognitive Measures

The Second Step® violence prevention curriculum was implemented in a large urban school district as part of a comprehensive three-year initiative to impact students at-risk for violence and substance abuse. An outcome evaluation was conducted to assess the intervention's effectiveness on students’ attitudes and on behaviors important for accountability. Results indicated improvements in students’ prosocial attitudes and behaviors that were consistent across two large cohorts of students. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.     

Zero-tolerance schooling: education policy,crime, and democracy in post-Soviet Georgia

This paper explores the consequences of the massive investment in criminal justice in Georgia following the Rose Revolution of 2003. We argue that this resulted in “governing through crime” – the outflow of criminal justice practices and logics into other unrelated policy spheres. We demonstrate this by looking at responses to the issue of safety in schools. We show that up to 2007, despite a moral panic surrounding school violence, policy-makers were able to resist knee-jerk punitive reactions in favor of evidence-based, preventive approaches in the relatively transparent atmosphere of Mikheil Saakashvili's first term. By 2008, however, schools increasingly began to become the objects of central government intervention and education policy became harsher and more punitive. In 2010, Police Academy-trained School Resource Officers were introduced into all schools throughout Georgia, with troubling consequences for both teachers and students. The paper shows that this move was primarily the result of the more interventionist, executive-driven, and opaque policy-making process in Saakashvili's second term, which left unchallenged the circulation of personnel, expertise, and policy from the hypertrophied criminal justice institutions into the education sphere.     

If Theory and Practice Were the Same,Then What? A New Approach to Designing Professional Education

Professional education has for decades been based on the premise that theory and practice are dichotomous, and that somehow a way must be found to enable professional practitioners to translate theory (the knowledge they acquire) into practice (what they actually do). The article examines the relationship between theory and practice, contending that theory and practice are the same, and proposes a model of professional education based on this premise. Based primarily on hermeneutic philosophy, a number of approaches to professional education are described that are quite different than those generally employed today.     

Strong and Weak Gender Quota Regimes

A study of the introduction and adoption of gender quotas that does not examine both the interpretation of the problem and the process of implementation is insufficient. A gender quota regime may be promising in its formal features, without guaranteeing the intended results in more informal practices. Six criteria form the basis for a strong gender quota regime: (1) unambiguous and concrete goals, (2) rank order of candidates, (3) evaluations and adjustments of the regime, (4) information from superior authorities, (5) satisfactory implementation by the actors involved, and (6) control and sanctions. An evaluation of these six criteria presupposes the use of a variety of methodological approaches. The development of specific criteria for strong versus weak quota regimes makes it possible to identify both the weak points of the legislation and the failures of implementation. In addition, these criteria will contribute to comparative studies on gender quota regimes and supplement the work of cumulative research. This study applies the six criteria in order to evaluate the Norwegian gender quota regime in local politics and shows that even if four criteria are fulfilled the result is still not satisfactory. The practices of implementation among politicians at the local level as well as among the supervising bodies (county governors) vary. Different discourses create various practices that force or obstruct the implementation of gender balance.     

少数民族地区基层政权的环境分析

少数民族地区基层政权是我国政权体系的重要组成部分。从系统论及其政治生态学的观点看 ,少数民族地区基层政权系统之外必然存在着特有的政治、经济、文化等环境要素。这些环境要素对少数民族基层政权系统的活动内容及方式产生着直接或间接的制约和影响。少数民族基层政权系统的活动必须充分估计与认识这种制约和影响 ,才能更有效地改造环境要素 ,从而加快少数民族地区的发展步伐     

论有中国特色社会主义文化的现阶段特征

现阶段的有中国特色社会主义文化有四个基本特征现阶段特色文化的社会主义性质以及文化建设思想的日益成熟,使其具有高度的自觉性;随着市场经济体制的逐步确立,中国社会进入转型期,现阶段特色文化由此具有明显的过渡性;社会主义初级阶段的不平衡性决定了特色文化具有很强的不平衡性;文化的继承性发展规律以及我国深厚的文化传统使现阶段特色文化表现出复杂的传统性.     

马克思主义中国化历史进程中的民族性

民族化是马克思主义发展进程中的一个重要规律,马克思主义只有与各国的具体国情、历史文化、民族特性相结合。进行国别化、民族化、具体化,才能发挥真正的世界观和方法论作用,才能指引各国的革命和建设事业取得胜利。在马克思主义中国化的历史进程中。马克思主义与中华民族历史文化、优秀传统思想和民族特性相互交融。表现出了鲜明的中国风格、中国气派、中国特色。     

中药野生资源分布规律初探

目的 为总体研究中药野生资源的分布规律提供可靠依据。方法 利用《中国高等植物》关于植物分布的图片和文字资料,对其中主要的药用植物资源的野生分布区的形状、面积等方面进行初步的研究。结果 选取的常用药用植物中,70%以上符合带状分布;7.87%的药用植物分布省区在5个以下,71.63%的药用植物分布达到或超过10个省区;常用中药的分布区域主要集中于甘肃、陕西、河南、四川、山东等省及江淮流域和江南地区。结论 中药野生资源多呈带状分布,多数为广布种,常用中药主产于汉民族的主要分布区。     

薄荷与留兰香的非腺毛微性状鉴别

目的 对市场上销售的薄荷及其混伪品留兰香进行微性状鉴别。方法 采用生物显微镜结合显微成像系统,对薄荷及留兰香叶面、叶缘和叶脉的微性状进行观察、拍摄和鉴别。结果 薄荷和留兰香的上表面、下表面、叶缘、叶脉的微性状具有较大差异,薄荷叶上表面的非腺毛明显长于留兰香,薄荷叶叶缘和叶脉主脉存在大量的非腺毛,而留兰香叶缘和叶脉主脉则很少有非腺毛。结论 利用中药微性状鉴别法可以对薄荷及混伪品留兰香进行鉴别。