This is an ethnographic study of how two Japanese kindergartens are implementing the "yohoichigenka" policy aimed at reforming the Japanese early childhood education system. The cases of these two kindergartens demonstrate what happens when a top-down mandate reaches the level of individual programs. The programs creatively find ways of…

Collaboration between K-12 and higher education sectors has not been as productive as participants and policy leaders would like--especially in an era of emphasis on college readiness and completion, which requires such collaboration. Various mechanisms have been used to foster collaboration including state P-20 (early learning through higher…

The opposing principles of local control and increased standardization are a prominent tension in the United States' education system. Since at least the early 1990s, this tension has taken shape around the accountability movement, defined by educational reforms that hold schools, teachers, and students accountable for performance on new…

This paper advances the theoretical and applied connection between education policy and community development. We call this community-aware education policy, and it is based on Dean's (2012) conception of human need that is thick (i.e., accounts for a relational context), rather than relying solely on a thin conception (i.e., instrumental view…

Universal pre-kindergarten (UPK) is a popular reform in West Virginia, offering part-time readiness-oriented instruction for four-year-olds and some three-year-olds with special needs. The reform joins public school sites and community partners (private preschool and/or Head Start resources) in the goal of pre-kindergarten for all eligible…