New methods of financing higher education used in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom are summarized and compared. The paper concludes that while these approaches are designed to improve efficiency, realize specific outcomes, and leverage additional funds from other sources, they may have unanticipated, unintended, and, in some…

Rural children and youth represent a substantial minority of U.S. students. The author of this commentary contends that the unique educational needs of rural communities have been largely ignored by the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) and that rural schools are treated as the "poor country cousins" of the U.S. education system.…

The future of Greece's well-being will depend on improving educational performance to boost productivity and improve social outcomes. In the current economic context, with the need to get best value for spending, Greece must and can address inefficiencies in its education system. The challenges are significant. For example, Greece lags behind many…

This book calls for changes in special-education fiscal policy, claiming that special-education finances need to be more fully incorporated into education-finance literature and fiscal-policy discussions. The first few chapters discuss fiscal and program-policy funding in the United States and in Europe. They trace the history of federal…

The role of the university president in the United States is considered in this David D. Henry lecture, as well as in three responses by a panel consisting of University of Illinois President Stanley C. Ikenberry, the university's College of Education Dean Joe R. Burnett, and University of Illinois professor David A. Whetten. A question and answer…

In order to determine similarities and differences in funding programs for rural United States schools, data published in the ERIC/CRESS publication entitled "Special Funding for Small and/or Isolated Rural Schools" was analyzed. Twenty-five of the 49 states for which data were collected have no special funding provisions for small…

The institutionalization of faculty development policy and activities is compared for Australia, Great Britain, the United States, West Germany, and Sweden. The factors that precipitated the trend in each country are examined, and it is concluded that the reward systems in each country favor faculty research performance over teaching. (Author/MSE)

This paper discusses the current state of fiscal relations between the federal, state and local governments in the United States and suggests directions for improvement. The significant degree of fiscal autonomy of the states and, to a lesser extent, of local governments has had several beneficial effects, including the responsiveness of public…

Examines research into reforming the school-year calendar in both the United Kingdom and the United States. Discusses anticipated advantages, summer learning loss, and possible solutions. Describes the TARDIS (Time and Resource Distribution in Schools) Project. Planners must analyze learning needs and consult stakeholders before changing…

Even as the United States extends a free public education to all children, it rigs the system against the success of some of the most vulnerable by taking those who arrive at school with the greatest needs and giving them less in school. Low-income and minority students, in particular, get less of what matters most; these students get the fewest…

Across the educational systems of the world, few issues have received more attention in recent years than the problem of ensuring that elementary and secondary-school classrooms are all staffed with adequately qualified teachers. The objective of this report is to present the results from a collaborative, comparative study, that examined the…

Across the educational systems of the world, few issues receive more attention than the problem of ensuring that elementary- and secondary-school classrooms are staffed with adequately qualified teachers. Even in nations where students routinely score high on international exams, the issue of teacher quality is the subject of concern. It is widely…

Across the educational systems of the world, few issues receive more attention than the problem of ensuring that elementary- and secondary-school classrooms are staffed with adequately qualified teachers. Even in nations where students routinely score high on international exams, the issue of teacher quality is the subject of concern. It is widely…

The Institute of International Education outlines the forces behind the new wave of international cooperative ventures in higher education and the challenges they pose through a systematic focus on the Japan-United States transactions. Focus is placed on two prototypes: (1) U.S. accredited institutions setting up a cooperative venture in Japan to…

Discusses personnel development and inexpensive sources of equipment needed for successful educational technology programs in economically hard-pressed areas in the United States and in Third World countries. Surveys future technological trends and stresses need for planning and foresight. (CJM)