Recent studies have produced conflicting findings about whether test-based rewards and sanctions create incentives that improve student performance, or hurdles that increase dropout and pushout rates from schools. This article reports the findings from a study that examined the impact of England's accountability reforms and investigated whether…

This document explains the Higher Education Funding Council for England's (HEFCE) policy on sustaining and promoting diversity in higher education (HE), defining diversity, discussing current dimensions of diversity in England's HE, and noting areas where diversity perhaps should not be encouraged. It also discusses what is being done to encourage…

Education reform during the last 2 decades has been shaped by the forces of growing public distrust of educational bureaucracies in a climate of rapid political change and growing international competition in the context of a global economy. Major school reforms in four selected industrial countries that differ significantly in terms of…

In the 1980s, English and Welsh schools face two major problems: declining enrollment and financial stringency. These may be exacerbated by the countries' uniquely decentralized educational power structure in which conflicts may be generated by political differences between local and national levels and by national accountability and testing…

Reviews policy changes in the field of teacher training and qualifications in England since 1983 for elementary/secondary teachers, higher education faculty, and further education teachers. Concludes that the government's piecemeal approach to teacher training and development has created some serious anomalies, particularly in the situation of…

Reports on recent changes in examination policy and practice in China, England and Wales, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Japan, Sweden, the United States, and the Soviet Union. Identifies and discusses some significant trade-offs arising from the implementation of examination policy. Discusses four nearly universal dilemmas of…

Reviews the origin, practice, and effects of the "payment by results" law in late nineteenth-century England, in which elementary education was funded on the basis of students' examination results. Argues that such a system of educational accountability severely hampered development of English and Welsh elementary education. (PAA)

In this article, the author discusses how England refines its accountability reforms. When the Conservative government crafted the Education Reform Act of 1988, which mandates a national curriculum for England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, as well as national-curriculum tests at ages 7, 11, and 14, schools in England were permitted to secede from…

This book provokes a re-examination of how expert knowledge, not practitioner know-how, has come to dominate how Americans judge and improve schools. It depicts the English tradition of school inspection to provoke the invention of better ways for judging and knowing schools in America. Data were gathered by observation of 39 local and national…

The report describes regulation of philanthropic organizations by federal, state, and self-regulatory groups within the organizations. It is the final volume in a five volume series examining the relationship between nonprofit institutions and their donors. Topics discussed in the first part of this volume are regulation of the philanthropic…

This report sheds light on the use of contract teachers with a particular focus on Cambodia, Nicaragua and India--countries that have all relied on contract teachers at some point. The report documents the use of contract teachers in Cambodia, Nicaragua and India and outlines the experience of contract teachers in West Africa. It also discusses…

Recent moves in many parts of the world to restructure and deregulate state education have sought to link significant degrees of institutional autonomy with an emphasis on parental choice and competition, thereby creating "quasi-markets" in education. This paper discusses such developments as part of a neo-liberal project for education…

This paper provides a synopsis of the findings of a national survey of headteachers conducted in 1999 by means of a self-completion postal questionnaire. The survey sought to establish the perceptions of English headteachers with regard to their state of readiness on taking up the role. Where respondents reported themselves as well prepared or…

Presents a comparative perspective regarding evidence from the British Universities Council for the Education of Teachers to the House of Commons Select Committee concerning methods of evaluating preservice teacher education in England and Wales by the Office for Standards in Education, assessing it from the context of the global village and…

Examines English school inspection before and since 1993 reforms, observations procedures that some schools have adopted, and procedures of various colleges. The balance of accountability and support for improvement varies depending on the details and culture of inspection. In the United States, some experiments with inspection are occurring, and…