As public education secretary of New Mexico, Hanna Skandera dug in fast, set an ambitious agenda, and broke a lot of china. Her ability to inspire and subsequently ignore controversy is clear: from the outset, she was deemed so contentious that the state senate refused to confirm her for four years, during which she performed her duties as…

Higher education is under siege by a barrage of policy initiatives that aim to fundamentally transform the academy. The most visible and most sustained assault has come in the form of funding cuts. Nationally, funding for public higher education was 18 percent lower in 2016 than in 2008, amounting to a $10 billion total disinvestment. In many…

There is a gap in understanding between legislators, governors, and other leaders and those who actually manage the distance learning operations on the nation's campuses. Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education's (WICHE) Cooperative Study of Educational Technologies (WCET) took a systematic approach to gauging the opinions of distance…

This article describes how positioning an organization to be seen as trusted and expert on an issue requires careful relationship-building, patience, and an abundance of time. Such an effort often requires help, and so American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) and Washington Partners are working together to further AIHEC's goals.…

This manual was designed primarily for use by people with disabilities. The hope is that it is also useful for families, as well as service coordinators and providers who directly assist families and individuals with disabilities. The focus of this manual is to provide easy-to-read information about available resources, and to provide immediate…

This paper follows on from the previous bulletin (Redford 2015), which covered the education remit of the Parliament's Education and Culture Committee between February 2015 to August 2015. This bulletin covers the remit of the Education and Culture Committee from September 2015 to February 2016.

This paper follows on from the previous bulletin (Redford 2015), which covered the education remit of the Parliament's Education and Culture Committee between February 2015 to August 2015. This bulletin covers the remit of the Education and Culture Committee from September 2015 to February 2016. [This is a republished article. To view the original…

In this research brief we present the results of a recent needs assessment evaluating the advocacy-based needs for Kentuckians with developmental disabilities and their families. Results highlight the different levels and types of supports needed to build self-advocacy capacity and to inform effective planning and services and the individual,…

US public adult basic skills education, as adult education researcher Thomas Sticht has often pointed out, is on the margins of public education. By many measures, in the past decade it has experienced significant further decline. In the last decade and a half, according to Sticht's (2015) analysis, "enrollments in the Adult Education and…

Adult educators know that adults and families change their lives through adult education. Adult education also positively impacts a host of social and economic issues. Yet this fact is largely unknown or misunderstood by the general public. Resources have become increasingly scarce, while at the same time adult educators are asked to do more with…

As Congress considers the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA), there is bipartisan interest in finding ways to address concerns about student debt and the quality of higher education. One possibility for bipartisan cooperation might be an attempt to provide more accountability in the higher education sector, including additional data…

Politics, as in many spheres of life in the Philippines, is still very much a male enclave. From the smallest government unit up to the national level, men dominate (Gemba, 2001). The study aimed to find out the factors that facilitates or restrains women candidates from participating in the political arena. This study was conducted among Lady…

In 2009, a seldom-used policy lever emerged in the form of a competitive grant program, Race to the Top (RTTT), and sparked a flurry of state-led initiatives as states vied for federal dollars. The current study examines the policymaking context that surrounded these events and propelled Tennessee to the top of the race among the states. Through…

In this essay, we explore the importance of state financial aid programs for both states and the students they serve. Effective state financial aid policy benefits from rigorous research that engages partners from a variety of roles, such as state agencies, legislative staff, and intermediary organizations. It also benefits from the engagement of…

This paper follows on from the previous bulletin (Redford 2017), which covered the education remit of the Parliament's Education and Skills Committee between September 2016 and January 2017. The following bulletin covers the Education remit of the Education and Skills Committee from January to August 2017.