The central argument of this article is that post-colonial states operate--and have always operated, due to their roots in colonialism and capitalism--according to an "ethos of privatization," through which state agents derive private benefit from positions ostensibly responsible for providing public services. The article offers a…

This article traces the state takeover and neoliberal reconstruction of a mid-size urban school district in the California Bay Area. Aligning with research on social networks in school reform, it identifies three organizational nodes of power operating within the takeover and post-takeover landscape: venture-philanthropic capital, the Teach for…

Title IX guidelines governing equal access to collide with state legislation around gender identity and multiple use bathrooms and changing facilities. This policy review of literature argues for a stronger voice from Washington, protecting the rights of all students to feel safe using private spaces at school. The many court rulings offer a fair…

Schools have become ground zero for clashes over transgender rights, and critics are denouncing academic institutions--and more recently, the Obama administration--for supporting transgender students in their right to use restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity. This article responds to the seven most common claims made by…

The article argues that there is no single globalisation of education systems, but rather multiple globalisations of each system taken in its individual context. We propose three explanatory factors to account for these vernacular globalisation processes, that is, for individual policy trajectories in each national context: path dependence on…

This article maps the genealogies of how California and Texas have dealt with school policy. The twin purpose is to shed light onto the dynamics governing the formation of K-12 education policy in two influential and different states, and visualizing the intensification of state-federal interaction that has gradually evolved into a national school…

After the Civil War (1861-1865), the United States faced a problem of "reconstruction" similar to that confronted by other nations at the time and familiar to the US since at least the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). The problem was one of territorial and political (re)integration: how to take territories that had only recently been…

Using an equity perspective, this article compares the education systems of the United States and the Netherlands. Existing data examining student demographics, the organizational structures, curricula, funding, and student outcomes are examined. The Netherlands appears to be getting a "bigger bang for their buck." We make the case that…

Before awarding waivers from core tenets of the No Child Left Behind Act to 11 states, the U.S. Department of Education ordered changes to address a significant weakness in most states' proposals: how they would hold schools accountable for groups of students deemed academically at risk, particularly those in special education or learning English.…

Against a shifting set of assessment preferences in the US regarding whether educational assessment should continue to be a states rights game or become a federally dominated undertaking, the publication of five first-rate analyses about England's national curriculum assessment (NCA) is particularly propitious. Taken together, these five papers…

Federalism is sometimes a metaphor for states' sovereignty, rather than appreciated as part of the political structure and process created by the Constitution of the United States. The author argues that "federalism" was redefined during the founding period to disassociate it from the discredited idea of states' sovereignty. (Author/JOW)

Concerns long-time conflict among three groups of St. Regis Mohawks (one group accepts federal jurisdiction, one disclaims United States citizenship, and one tries to resolve conflicts of the first two) and the state of New York. (AN)

Examines the concept of federalism in terms of its past history and its encouraging future. Calls for a revival of concern for federalism not simply as a convenient administrative arrangement but as a fundamental constitutional value. (BSR)

This issue of the Multi-State Consortium on Performance-Based Teacher Education (PBTE) contains: (1) competency based teacher education and certification activities at six Utah universities and by the Utah State Board of Education; (2) the Texas State Attorney General's opinion on the lack of power on the part of the State Board of Education to…

Discusses the new welfare law's elements that affect low-wage labor: work requirements, time limits, relaxed protections, and expanded state authority. Outlines high-road versus low-road policies in terms of economic development, human resource development, and administration. (SK)