| The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether there was a statistically significant difference between the overall outcomes of reported, or published, education court decisions from the mid-1970s and those in the mid-1990s. Secondary purposes were to ascertain: (a) whether there were significant differences between outcome means of the two time periods in terms of category (suits by students, suits by employees, and suits by others) and, if so, for which particular categories; (b) whether there were significant differences between overall outcomes of the two time periods in terms of court forum (state and federal); (c) whether there were significant differences between outcome mean scores of the two time periods in terms of the interaction between category and court forum, and, if so, for which specific combinations of these two variables; and (d) the mean outcome results of the two time periods for each subcategory.;The study analyzed and coded a sample consisting of 317 of the 1,794 published federal and state court decisions from 1974--76 and 318 of the 1,854 published decisions from 1994--96, all of which met the study's criteria. The author developed the Litigation Documentation Form to record the following information from each court decision: time frame, category and subcategory, judicial forum and case outcome. The outcome classification was comprised of a seven-point scale, arranged from a score of "7," demonstrating a conclusive decision completely favoring school authorities, to a score of "1," representing a conclusive decision completely favoring plaintiffs. Pilot testing of the instrument resulted in the development of case selection and categorization criteria, which served to enhance the reliability of classification decisions. Statistical procedures utilized included a 2 x 2 x 3 analysis of variance and Tukey test.;The outcome mean scores for the primary issue were not significant. Specifically, the difference between the overall mean scores of 4.67 for 1974--76 and 4.97 for 1994--96 indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between outcome means of reported education cases from the two time periods.;However, a statistically significant difference was found between outcome means of reported education cases from the two time periods for the category variable. The post hoc analysis revealed a significant difference between the mean scores for only the suits by students category. This finding supports the prior research findings of an increasingly school-friendly posture by courts when dealing with student cases, particularly constitutionally-based decisions.;The outcome mean scores were not significant for either of the other secondary analyses. Specifically, no statistically significant difference was found between outcome means of reported education cases from the two time periods for the court forum variable. Likewise, no statistically significant difference was found between outcome means of reported education cases for the interaction of time period, court forum and category.;Despite the lack of significant findings in most of the analyses, school authorities fared better than plaintiffs, to at least a moderate extent, in both time periods for nearly every examination. These results signify, at least in part, that schools have continued to prevail over students, employees or others in both state and federal court since the 1970s. |
