Navigating Religious Rights of Teachers and Students: Establishment, Accommodation, Neutrality, or Hostility?

Despite the notion that First Amendment rights are established, valued, and respected in the United States, there continues to be confusion in public schools that leads to legal conflict over issues associated with freedoms of speech and expression, especially as they relate to religious issues. Navigating the religious rights of teachers and students can be a precarious undertaking, as administrators’ decisions regarding the expression of religious beliefs continue to be highlighted in the media and many times are resolved in the court system at great expense to school districts. The purpose of this article is to clarify religious rights issues for school administrators and school boards. What actions risk violating the establishment clause or expressing hostility toward religion? When and how is religion best accommodated while neutrality is maintained? This study traces court decisions and laws that serve to guide religious rights policies and practices. It also examines recent conflicts and the legal organizations whose mission it is to address First Amendment violations

The Role of Controversial Issues in Moral Education: Approaches and Attitudes of Christian School Educators

This study investigated the approaches and attitudes of Christian school teachers as they addressed controversial issues in moral education. Thirteen teachers from four schools were interviewed extensively. A hermeneutic phenomenological methodology was implemented. Participants conveyed that they attempted to remain pedagogically neutral in matters relating to denominational differences among Christian churches. While acknowledging that indoctrinative techniques may alienate students, teachers chose to indoctrinate selectively, especially in matters critical to the Christian faith. Issues impacting the classrooms included abortion, sex, doctrine, homosexuality, evolution, etc. Teachers rarely chose to remain neutral on controversial issues unless by doing so they sensed that they would undermine parental authority or a particular Christian church’s denominational doctrine

Margaret Douglass: Literacy Education to Freed Blacks in Antebellum Virginia

In the 19th century, voices for social reform reached a high pitch—both figuratively and literally. Recognizable women’s voices were heard in various reform movements: Susan B. Anthony, Jane Addams, Dorothea Dix, Harriet Tubman, Catherine Beecher and her sister Harriet Beecher-Stowe. These women were active in bringing about change in the societal roles and treatment of women, children, slaves, freedmen, and persons who were illiterate, disabled, poor, or incarcerated. A name not as recognizable, yet often held as an example of activism for educational rights of emancipated blacks, is that of Margaret Douglass—a white Virginian woman who was jailed for a month for violating an 1849 law prohibiting the teaching of reading and writing to freedmen. Although Douglass’ actions and the consequences faced for them have earned her a modicum of notoriety, further consideration may affirm that the limited status she holds as a social activist is warranted

The Interrelation between Audit Quality and Managerial Reporting Choices and Its Effects on Financial Reporting Quality

Two distinct lines of research have been dedicated to empirically testing how financial reporting quality (measured as the earnings response coefficient or ERC) is associated with management's choice of reporting bias and with audit quality. However, researchers have yet to consider how ERCs are affected by either the auditor's reaction to changes in the manager's reporting bias or the manager's reaction to changes in audit quality. Our study provides theoretical guidance on these interrelations and how changes in the manager's or the auditor's incentives affect both reporting bias and audit quality. Specifically, when the manager's cost (benefit) of reporting bias increases (decreases), we find that expected bias decreases, inducing the auditor to react by reducing audit quality. Because we also find that the association between expected audit quality and ERCs is always positive, changes in managerial incentives for biased reporting lead to a positive association between ERCs and expected reporting bias. When the cost of auditing decreases or the cost of auditor liability increases, we find that expected audit quality increases, inducing the manager to react by decreasing reporting bias. In this case, changes in the costs of audit quality lead to a negative association between ERCs and expected reporting bias. Finally, we demonstrate the impact of our theoretical findings by focusing on the empirical observations documented in the extant literature on managerial ownership and accounting expertise on the audit committee. In light of our framework, we provide new interpretations of these empirical observations and new predictions for future research

McGuffey Readers

With over 122 million copies sold from 1838 to 1920, the McGuffey Eclectic Readers taught more Americans to read than any other textbook. Initial publication coincided with a unique period in United States history as the West was settled, newly arrived immigrants assimilated, and the common school movement gained momentum. At this time, the nation was at a critical point of forming a distinct identity. These phenomena created a demand for textbooks that would not only meet the practical need for curriculum in developing schools but would also extend prevailing American values both to children new to the frontier and to those new to the nation. The McGuffey Readers proved to be to the 19th century what the New England Primer was to 18th-century, except to a much greater degree

Case Studies: Developing Decision-making Skills in Diverse Simulated Environments

Traditional print case studies have been a long-standing instructional strategy for educational leadership preparation programs. With the advent of interactive online environments, the possibilities for simulations have increased exponentially—opening the way for data-rich, complex cases that the instructor can easily situate in diverse settings. One program offering such a problem-solving experience is Educational Theory into Practice Software (ETIPS). ETIPS is a federally funded program developed by professors of educational administration as a tool to teach data-based decision-making skills. Available for both pre-service and in-service use, ETIPS provides 10 problems that can each be situated in nine schools. The options for schools include elementary, middle, and high schools in rural, urban, and suburban settings with low, average, or high academic achievement

The Effects of Auditor Tenure on Fraud and Its Detection

We examine the strategic effects of auditor tenure on the auditor's testing strategy and the manager's inclination to commit fraud. Most empirical studies conclude that longer tenure improves audit quality. Proponents of restricting tenure argue that longer tenure impairs auditor independence and a "fresh look" from a new auditor results in higher audit quality. Validating this argument requires testing whether the observed difference in audit quality between a continuing auditor and a change in auditors is less than the theoretically expected difference in audit quality without impairment. Our findings provide the guidance necessary for developing such tests. Our results show that audit risk (the probability that fraud exists and goes undetected) is lower in both periods for the continuing auditor than with a change in auditors. More importantly, we show that across both periods, expected undetected fraud is lower for the continuing auditor than with a change in auditors

Alien Registration- Smith, Samuel J. (Houlton, Aroostook County)

https://digitalmaine.com/alien_docs/34876/thumbnail.jp

Navigating Religious Rights of Teachers and Students

Despite the notion that First Amendment rights are established, valued, and respected in the United States, there continues to be confusion in public schools that leads to legal conflict over issues associated with freedoms of speech and expression, especially as they relate to religious issues. Navigating the religious rights of teachers and students can be a precarious undertaking, as administrators’ decisions regarding the expression of religious beliefs continue to be highlighted in the media and many times are resolved in the court system at great expense to school districts. The purpose of this paper is to clarify religious rights issues for school administrators and school boards. What actions risk violating the establishment clause or expressing hostility toward religion? When and how is religion best accommodated while neutrality is maintained? This study traces court decisions and laws that serve to guide religious rights policies and practices. It also examines recent conflicts and the legal organizations whose mission it is to address First Amendment violations