Research educational law, English homework help

Choosing the Topic and the Research Process

You will be researching a topic in educational law. This is a rather obscure topic for most teenagers, yet at the same time it is one that you have an implicit awareness of. So many of the decisions which shape the first 18 years of your life are established in the schools, by the courts, and it is incumbent upon us to be aware of the legal basis for at least some of those decisions.

In true Socratic format, however, this project will not be one that is spoon fed to you, whereby the instructor is awaiting a collected body of evidence that she/he knows in advance. Rather, this is truly a research project, where the material you learn and apply will be based upon your understanding of legal precedent and contemporary controversy.

And the research topic is…

STAGES TO THE PROCESS

The first step is research, whereby you will avail yourself of different sources to record information. It is important that you select a topic that has some historical depth to this. Some sample controversial issues in schools have been:

• dress code
• busing
• school newspapers
• zoning rights
• bilingual education
• desegregation
• school finance
• special education

Recommended sources include:

1. Web Sites
2. US Supreme Court decisions and State Court decisions on Educational Law
3. Local School Board policy and/or other school documents; i.e., curriculum
4. Interviews with all major stakeholders: students, parents, teachers, administrators
   In addition to the above sources, we are obliged to consider the following as sources of information:
5. written documents—i.e., newspapers, magazines
6. video footage
7. historical review