Review (PDF) American Public School Law
Alexander and Alexander's bestselling American Public School Law sets the standard for books in educational law, an increasingly vital area of expertise for today's school and district administrators. Now in its Eighth Edition, this combined textbook/casebook provides an authoritative and comprehensive view of the law that governs the public school system of the United States, including common law, statutes, and constitutional laws as they affect students, teachers, and administrators. Featuring civil and criminal cases selected from hundreds of jurisdictions and newly updated to reflect the latest legal trends and precedents, the book reviews key laws and relevant court decisions. The case method offers ample opportunity for discussions aimed at discovering and exposing the underlying rules and reasoning, and the text actively encourages readers to relate factual situations to the law while anticipating similar experiences they may have as practicing teachers and administrators. Written in an engaging and accessible style, American Public School Law (Eighth Edition) explains even complex points of law clearly and effectively for non-lawyers, and the authors maintain a diligent focus on the unique needs of professional educators preparing for successful careers in administration. About This Edition New Features A new Instructor's Manual provides a quick reference for professors. Regarded for its user-friendly descriptions of law for non-lawyers, the Eighth Edition includes new charts that define the law, new boxed notations to highlight relevant points of law, and additional recent case notes--making the book even easier to read and understand. Chapter 1, "The Legal System," includes a new section on "How to Find the Law" (how to do legal research). A new "Research Aids" section for the non-lawyer, organized by topic, appears at the end of each chapter. These sections specify key sources of the law that can be accessed via the Internet or in a law library. Each chapter now begins with an introduction section that sets the stage for the material that follows, and concludes with a new "Summation of Case Law" section that summarizes the key points of the various legal precedents discussed. Both of these new features help students to identify, understand, and retain the most important points and cases of each chapter. Every chapter is updated with coverage of recent precedents and modifications in the law. Topics include student speech and expression, school curriculum and orthodoxy, immigration and school attendance, the Internet and student discipline, student searches: drugs and weapons, true threats of violence, bullying as a legal issue, charter school law, emerging restrictions of teacher rights, pursuit of duty law as it relates to school administrators, and precedents regarding Federal civil rights laws. Cartoons have been added where appropriate to provide political and policy insight as well as humor to lighten the presentation. Additional Features The authors carefully selected cases from hundreds of U.S. jurisdictions, including those that best exemplify the prevailing view of the courts in the various areas of law relevant to public education. The authors provide interpretive, concise, and simplified explanations of esoteric but important legal concepts that affect the daily conduct of schools, rendering even abstract legal precedents simple for non-lawyers to grasp. The organization of the text reflects a logical and sequential presentation, ranging from foundational material on the nation's legal system, historical foundations of public schools, and school governance to topics such as laws related to school attendance, curriculum and instruction, student rights, teacher rights, and collective bargaining. American Public School Law (Eighth Edition) offers exceptionally comprehensive coverage of legal problems and issues pertinent to practicing educators, including common law, statutes, and constitutional law. Featuring an abundance of cases and extensive content to reflect the latest trends, precedents, and points of law in this rapidly changing field, the text provides readers with a current and comprehensive review of the essential legal considerations relevant to their profession.
Hardcover: 1184 pages
Publisher: Cengage Learning; 8 edition (January 1, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 049591049X
ISBN-13: 978-0495910497
Product Dimensions: 2 x 8.5 x 10.5 inches
Shipping Weight: 5.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #70,733 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #10 in Books > Law > Specialties > Educational Law & Legislation #370 in Books > Textbooks > Law #415 in Books > Business & Money > Education & Reference
This Sixth Edition of American Public School Law is a comprehensive treatment of noteworthy public school case law that also serves to outline the history of our country. It's user friendly, while not lowering the bar for comprehension. Legal lingo is left intact, but translations are offered for those of us who are reading it for School Law classes, as opposed to Law School classes. There's a useful glossary, and a handy index for locating specific topics, and the cases that illustrate them. This is a book you'll want to keep.
I ordered the book for my graduate class. It contains landmark court cases and rulings dealing with public school issues in all U.S. states. It is a great source for public school administrators and basically an easy read for those who have never had a law class.
As a college professor, I taught school law. For anyone who is not an attorney, do not make legal decisions, instead make administrative decisions that's based upon school policy, your union agreement, and books like this legal text. This book is well documented and up to date. It is broad in its scope, yet its specific enough to inform you about contracts, "separation of church and state", and the "separate but equal" law that lasted from 1896 to 1954, the Courts decisions from Plessy v. Ferguson to Brown v. BOE of Topeka. The scope of this book is broad, yet deep...I recommend this book for anyone who wants to gain information about legal matters that pertains to school law.
I purchased access to the online version of this book. It was required for a graduate course I took. Unfortunately, even though it was required, I ended up not needing it and not using it. It was in my opinion quite expensive. If it were a valuable tool I would have expected it to be used in the course. Therefore I suspect it is not a valuable learning tool.
The book was in good condition when I received it. I was forced to purchase this book by my grad school for a grad school class. I am not very impressed with the books summarization of the cases and in order to really understand the cases, I have had to go to Westlaw and review the entire case. The book omits information that I deem as important and puts in a lot of fluff or irrelevant information. The book does however; provide a good listing of cases by topic for School Administrator to have a jumping off point.
This book is packed FULL of information that all school leaders should know. It takes a long time to read but there are so many cases that cover just about every school/teacher/due process situation you can think of. A must have for all educational leaders.
Once you get past the first two chapters, which are heavy with law-jargon, the book is a great resource for anyone in the field of education. If you're in a position to have parents questioning your administrative moves, this source should be kept in an easy-to-access location. It will come in very handy!
I am a law student, and this is by far the worst book I have ever been assigned.50% of the text is a summary of relevant case law, without many of the supporting facts. Normally a law school book is mostly cases. It is very hard to go through the learning process (digesting the case yourself) when using this book.Additionally, the book is laid out in two columns, which makes note-taking especially difficult.Basically, I would recommend avoiding this text if possible.
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