High-quality K-12 instructional materials can meaningfully improve teaching practice and student achievement, especially when paired with professional learning support. Yet state policymakers have usually left ultimate authority for textbook selection to school district leaders. Consequently, the quality of materials across U.S. classrooms and…

In this portrait, Simone A. Fried investigates the first six months of a state education department's takeover of a public school district. Using interviews, observations, and artifact analysis, the article explores how school district employees experience the significant reorganization of governance structures and policies that accompanies…

The economic fallout of the layoffs and business closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc for New England workers--especially those who were already facing a structurally vulnerable workforce and employment system before the pandemic. What can state governments do to stimulate job creation and make New England's economy more…

In September 2015, Governor Charlie Baker announced his support for raising the charter school cap in Massachusetts. This announcement has sparked a heated debate about funding for public education that problematically ignores neoliberal ideology. The "Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993" began a reign of neoliberalism impacting…

Health care is one of the economy's biggest industries, so it is natural that the health care industry should play some role in the teaching of introductory economics. There are many ways that health care can appear in such a context: in the teaching of microeconomics, as a macroeconomic issue, to learn about social welfare, and even to learn how…

When President Obama points out, correctly, that young women stand a better chance of being sexually assaulted on a college campus than in the world outside, we have a problem that needs to be addressed not simply on campus, but at the highest levels of government. Author Warren Tolman strongly believes that the Massachusetts Office of Attorney…

Context: Urban school districts have gone through countless reform efforts to no avail. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) has developed a model that has the potential to be a game changer in laying the foundation for student success. Purpose: This article explores how one district used the model and targeted…

This article builds on Darling-Hammond, Wilhoit, and Pittenger's (2014) new paradigm on "Accountability for College and Career Readiness" by focusing on one of its three pillars--professional accountability. The article begins by offering a conceptual framework for professional accountability for improvement. Next, it highlights slices…

For some colleges and professors, classified research promises prestige and money. Powerhouses like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Johns Hopkins University have for decades run large classified laboratories. But most other universities either do not allow such research or conduct it quietly, and in small doses. The…

Recent governments have transformed the English education system from an arrangement of local, democratically managed, groups of schools into a market free-for-all in which individual schools compete for pupils, status and resources. Elements of a market exist in the relationship between parents and private schools but much market behaviour is…

American public higher education is in trouble. Besieged by declining state and Federal support for more than 30 years, public colleges and universities are facing a "game-changing" set of challenges that threaten to alter the very nature of the institutions. As two recessions withered state budgets in the first decade of the 21st…

The Chinese National Quality Course Plan is a large-scale project by the Ministry of Education, which has led to the production of more than 12,000 courses from some 700 universities since 2003. This paper describes in detail the purpose of the project and how it is organized at all levels, including how individual courses get selected at…

On the silver anniversary of the U.S. Department of Education, participants on all sides of the perpetual debate over the proper role of the federal government in education are taking its survival for granted. The Cato Institute this year issued its customary biennial call for Congress to demolish the department. Based on interviews with some of…

Defines the problem and causes of homelessness, suggests a comprehensive policy approach, and describes its implementation in Massachusetts. (CMG)

Recounts the political, economic, social, and governmental situations surrounding Shays' Rebellion, the 1786 farmer's uprising in Massachusetts which, among other things, demonstrated the need for a stronger federal government. Concludes with contemporary analogies and the statement that, in a free society, the conflict between the legitimate…