Catharine Cookson
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195129441
- eISBN:
- 9780199834105
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/019512944X.003.0002
- Subject:
- Religion, Religion and Society
Examines the various legal standards, rules, or tests that have been used by the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve free exercise cases, and places these tests within the full factual and legal contexts ...
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Examines the various legal standards, rules, or tests that have been used by the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve free exercise cases, and places these tests within the full factual and legal contexts of the cases. Particular attention is paid to the no‐exception test adopted in 1879 in the Reynolds case, the tests used in the important string of Jehovah's Witnesses cases of the 1940's, the more recent compelling state interest test as used in an Amish case involving compulsory formal education of children up to the age of 16, and finally the neutrality standard of the 1990 Smith case that reinvigorated the no‐exception test of 1879. A careful, detailed review of the particulars of the cases shows that the underlying analytical process used is excruciatingly influential to the ultimate decision: Justices in factually similar cases purportedly using the same abstract legal test reach different conclusions based upon the analytical process they use.Less
Examines the various legal standards, rules, or tests that have been used by the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve free exercise cases, and places these tests within the full factual and legal contexts of the cases. Particular attention is paid to the no‐exception test adopted in 1879 in the Reynolds case, the tests used in the important string of Jehovah's Witnesses cases of the 1940's, the more recent compelling state interest test as used in an Amish case involving compulsory formal education of children up to the age of 16, and finally the neutrality standard of the 1990 Smith case that reinvigorated the no‐exception test of 1879. A careful, detailed review of the particulars of the cases shows that the underlying analytical process used is excruciatingly influential to the ultimate decision: Justices in factually similar cases purportedly using the same abstract legal test reach different conclusions based upon the analytical process they use.
David K. Cohen and Heather C. Hill
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300089479
- eISBN:
- 9780300133349
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300089479.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Education
Education reformers and policymakers argue that improved students' learning requires stronger academic standards, stiffer state tests, and accountability for students' scores. Yet these efforts seem ...
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Education reformers and policymakers argue that improved students' learning requires stronger academic standards, stiffer state tests, and accountability for students' scores. Yet these efforts seem not to be succeeding in many states. This book argues that effective state reform depends on conditions which most reforms ignore: coherence in practice as well as policy and opportunities for professional learning. The book draws on a decade's detailed study of California's ambitious and controversial program to improve mathematics teaching and learning. The book reports that state policy influenced teaching and learning when there was consistency among the tests and other policy instruments; when there was consistency among the curricula and other instruments of classroom practice; and when teachers had substantial opportunities to learn the practices proposed by the policy. These conditions were met for a minority of elementary school teachers in California. When the conditions were met for teachers, students had higher scores on state math tests. The book also shows that, for most teachers, the reform ended with consistency in state policy. They did not have access to consistent instruments of classroom practice, nor did they have opportunities to learn the new practices which state policymakers proposed. In these cases, neither teachers nor their students benefited from the state reform. This book offers insights into the ways policy and practice can be linked in successful educational reform and shows why such linkage has been difficult to achieve.Less
Education reformers and policymakers argue that improved students' learning requires stronger academic standards, stiffer state tests, and accountability for students' scores. Yet these efforts seem not to be succeeding in many states. This book argues that effective state reform depends on conditions which most reforms ignore: coherence in practice as well as policy and opportunities for professional learning. The book draws on a decade's detailed study of California's ambitious and controversial program to improve mathematics teaching and learning. The book reports that state policy influenced teaching and learning when there was consistency among the tests and other policy instruments; when there was consistency among the curricula and other instruments of classroom practice; and when teachers had substantial opportunities to learn the practices proposed by the policy. These conditions were met for a minority of elementary school teachers in California. When the conditions were met for teachers, students had higher scores on state math tests. The book also shows that, for most teachers, the reform ended with consistency in state policy. They did not have access to consistent instruments of classroom practice, nor did they have opportunities to learn the new practices which state policymakers proposed. In these cases, neither teachers nor their students benefited from the state reform. This book offers insights into the ways policy and practice can be linked in successful educational reform and shows why such linkage has been difficult to achieve.
