Safeguarding Students' Educational Rights
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Center for Educational Equity
Safeguarding Students' Educational Rights
Essential Resources: The Constitutional Requirements for Providing All Students in New York State the Opportunity for a Sound Basic Education (2nd Edition)
Author(s): Michael Rebell, with assistance provided by Jessica R. Wolff and Joseph R. Rogers, Jr.
Published: The Center for Educational Equity, December 21, 2017
Drawing on relevant and up-to-date state statutes, regulations, and the court order in the landmark legal case Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE) v. State of New York, Essential Resources zeroes in on the educational resources to which students are entitled under the state constitution.
First published in December 2012, Essential Resources became the first-ever comprehensive compilation of New York students' educational rights, and served as a framework for assessing the state's compliance with CFE, which guarantees all students the right to a "sounds basic education"--a set of learning opportunities specifically designed to prepare them for effective civic participation and good jobs.
Ensuring Students’ Right to Preparation for Competitive Employment: The New York State Constitution as a Foundation for Systemic Improvement of Career and Technical Education
Author: Center for Educational Equity (formerly Campaign for Educational Equity)
Published: December 2017
In this report, we situate the critical issue of preparation for the workplace in the broader context of students’ constitutional right to an education that provides the knowledge, skills, experiences, and dispositions that are the foundations to be a productive citizen. We tie the renewed concern among educators, policymakers, business leaders, and the public at large about preparing students for competitive employment with the growing interest in preparing students to be effective citizens capable of safeguarding our democracy and stewarding our nation toward a greater realization of its democratic values. We propose some necessary reforms to improve students’ access to existing New York’s career and technical education pathways. And we argue that high quality career pathways, including “9-14” programs that bridge secondary and postsecondary education, serve our students best if they are constructed on a strong foundation of basic educational opportunity for all.
This report was prepared by Michael A. Rebell, John R. Sludden, and Jessica R. Wolff. We are grateful to the James and Judith K. Dimon Foundation for their support of this research.
Students' Constitutional Right to a Sound Basic Education: New York State's Unfinished Agenda
The four-part report series listed below is designed to help guide elected officials, the board of Regents, and the New York State Education Department in moving New York toward providing all children the essential educational opportunities guaranteed by state law.
Part 1: A Roadmap to Constitutional Compliance Ten Years after CFE v. State
Authors: Michael A. Rebell and Jessica R. Wolff
Published: November 2016
An overview of the three specific proposals, each listed below, designed as a roadmap to help guide elected officials, the Board of Regents, and the New York State Education Department in moving New York toward providing all children the essential educational opportunities guaranteed by law.
Part 2: Filling the Regulatory Gaps
Authors: Michael A. Rebell and Jessica R. Wolff, with Joseph R. Rogers, Jr., and Matthew Saleh
Published: November 2016
This article is the first of three proposals in CEE's article series entitled, Students' Constitutional Right to a Sound Basic Education: New York State's Unfinished Agenda. Filling the Regulatory Gaps outlines the revisions to education regulations needed for constitutional compliance.
Part 3: Utilizing a Constitutional Cost Methodology
Authors: Michael A. Rebell and Jessica R. Wolff
Published: November 2016
This article is the second of three proposals in CEE's article series entitled, Students' Constitutional Right to a Sound Basic Education: New York State's Unfinished Agenda. Utilizing a Constitutional Cost Methodology presents an innovative new method for calculating education costs.
Part 4: Ensuring Resource Accountability
Authors: Jessica R. Wolff and Michael A. Rebell, with Joseph R. Rogers, Jr.
Published: November 2016
This article is the third and final proposal in CEE's article series entitled, Students' Constitutional Right to a Sound Basic Education: New York State's Unfinished Agenda. Ensuring Resource Accountability spells out the mechanisms needed to monitor and enforce the provision of constitutionally required educational resources.
A New Constitutional Cost Methodology for Determining the Actual Cost of a Sound Basic Education
Authors: Michael A. Rebell, Henry M. Levin, Robert Shand, and Jessica R. Wolff
Published: September 2016
This article presents a constitutional cost methodology with clear standards for both "input" and "outcome" criteria, taking full account of the needs of students living in poverty, English language learners, and students with disabilities, and systematically considers cost effectiveness.
Deficient Resources: An Analysis of the Availability of Basic Educational Resources in High-Need Schools in New York School Districts
Author(s): Michael A. Rebell, Jessica R. Wolff, and Joseph R. Rogers, Jr.
Published: The Campaign for Educational Equity, December 10, 2012
Courts and Kids: Pursuing Educational Equity Through the State Courts 2017 Supplement
Author: Michael A. Rebell
Published: 2017
Setting the Record Straight: The Truth About School Funding in New York State
Authors: Michael A. Rebell and Jessica R. Wolff
Published: February 2014
It is important to separate rhetoric and reality in today's debates over school funding. To help New Yorkers participate in this important discussion,CEE provides some facts to dispel some current school-funding myths.
Reviewing Resources: An Assesment of the Availability of Basic Educational Resources in High-Needs New York City Schools
Author(s): Jessica R. Wolff, Joseph R. Rogers, Jr., and Jaunelle Pratt
Published: The Center for Educational Equity (formerly Campaign for Educational Equity), March 2012
Reviewing Resources is a preliminary report for the Center for Educational Equity's (formerly Campaign for Educational Equity) Safeguarding Sound Basic Education project. Based on interviews with school personnel from 34 high-needs New York City schools, the research highlights serious gaps in schools' ability to provide suitable curricula for all students, appropriate supports for struggling students, resources for improving teacher quality and a safe, orderly environment for learning.
Safeguarding the Right to a Sound Basic Education in Times of Fiscal Constraint
Published: Albany Law Review, Volume 75, Number 4, June 2012
Courts and Kids: Pursuing Educational Equity Through the State Courts
Author: Michael A. Rebell
Published: 2009
While federal courts have dramatically retreated, state courts have taken up the mantle of promoting the vision of educational equity originally articulated in Brown v. Board of Ed. This is the first detailed analysis of why the state courts have taken on this role and how successful their efforts have been.
Available at: The University of Chicago Press
Class-Size Reductions: Policy, Politics and Implications for Equity
Author(s): Douglas Ready
Published: Equity Matters: Research Review No. 2 (2008)
As part of a peer-review series of research reviews commissioned by the Center for Educational Equity (formerly Campaign for Educational Equity) from Teachers College faculty and other national experts from such centers as the Harvard Family Research Project and the National Center for Children and Families, Ready surveys the research literature on class-size reduction.