Education and the Law (Final Weekend)

I have prepared two legal briefs on cases involving student searches, and completed a Resolution, Equity, and Advocacy Project. I have a comprehensive final exam this weekend, as well as a Legal Improvement and Social Justice Project to finish. I simply didn't realize just how little I, and most of my co-workers, know about legal issues that impact us and our profession on an everyday basis. This course has proven to be very enlightening and rewarding.

Education and the Law

I spent most of this past weekend in class with Dr. Rossow and a cohort of teachers and coaches, most of them seeking administrative degrees. I am writing briefs and other projects, and learned quite a bit of educational law. For instance, there are approximately twelve Constitutional "tests" with which a teacher or administrator can plug in the facts of a given situation at school, and with a great deal of confidence predict the legal outcome, if any. I feel all educators, regardless of experience, need to be more informed about legal issues in their profession. As a science teacher I am particularly interested in liability issues concerning hand-on experiments and other activities which are the foundation of the Learning Cycle. Dr. Rossow is a wonderful teacher, and very knowledgeable, with years of practical experience as a teacher and administrator in grade schools.