The title is catchy and positive: "Smart, Skilled, and Striving: Transforming and Elevating the Teaching Profession." It sounds like a teacher-friendly approach to improving the perceptions and experiences of teachers working in classrooms. However, this report published by the Center for American Progress uses popular rhetoric and sound…

Massification of higher education has not been able to solve societal issues in the UK to the extent originally envisaged. Whilst universities have achieved increased student numbers and widened participation from various societal groups, those coming from socially disadvantaged groups can still often have a very different experience of university…

Not for the first time in its history, the UK Higher Education sector finds itself in a position of significant financial constraint. The current coalition Government's actions to address the budget deficit have led to sweeping cuts across many public sector departments, but it is higher education that has seen the most draconian reduction in…

In this wide-ranging interview with Educational Leadership, Stanford University Professor of Education Linda Darling-Hammond discusses the kind of preparation and support new teachers need to survive their critical first years in the classroom. Among her central recommendations are more intensive mentoring that lasts through the first year of…

Federal policy directed to teaching and teachers is the subject of this review, which is organized around: (1) recruitment; (2) training; (3) accountability; (4) incentives; (5) qualifications; (6) class size reduction; (teacher working conditions; and (8) human resource management and the overall coordination of teacher policy. For each theme,…

The purpose of this paper is to consider, in principle and at the most general level, a particular possible approach to educational policy-making. This approach involves an education-specific application of the notion of hypothetical markets first developed in Ronald Dworkin's book "Sovereign Virtue: The theory and practice of equality" (2000).…

The importance of teacher quality for determining student outcomes is now well established. At the same time, the translation of what is known about teacher quality into effective policy is far from being institutionalized. The simplest summary of research into teacher quality is that some teachers are dramatically more effective than others but…

The recruitment of women teachers can have a positive impact on girls' enrollments in school. This advocacy brief promotes the recruitment of women teachers which is currently held back as a result of gender disparities. The publication explains how recruitment of women teachers could relate to girls' education, stating some current issues facing…

Throughout history, cities that have been centers of great learning have usually also taken their place as economic powerhouses. Here in America, economists have long noticed that educated cities--that is, cities with a greater percentage of knowledgeable and skilled residents--have fared better economically than their unskilled counterparts, but…

This issue of CPRE Policy Briefs summarizes the findings on issues related to teacher quality in the chapter by the author in the book, "The State of Education Policy Research" (Cohen, Fuhrman, Mosher, Eds., 2007). This report also draws on discussions that took place during a summer, 2006, policy briefing on teacher labor-market issues…

A discourse of marketisation prevails in recent publications on higher education in Ireland. Higher education is urged to heed the call to the markets and to become the driver of Ireland's future economic success, as Ireland seeks to build a knowledge-based economy. This article questions the dominant marketisation discourse in higher education.…

Many Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries recruit internationally skilled workers for their health, education, or public administration sectors and the subsequent emigration of such workers can cause critical shortages in developing countries, even as these countries receive substantial aid from those same OECD…

Lists 10 premises affecting the future of teaching, including trends toward teacher shortages, declining entry standards, unattractive salaries and working conditions, and standardized curricula. Presents three scenarios: business-as-usual, two-tiered (permanent senior teacher cadres instructing temporary teachers), and a professional scenario…

The supply and demand for teachers to staff urban public schools depend on the following factors: (1) school district resources; (2) climate and conditions of employment; (3) federal, state, and local policies; (4) demographic trends; and (5) socioeconomic factors. Urban school districts must recruit teachers and must continue to develop them…

Evaluation of college student recruitment and retention programs is complex and has limitations that must be acknowledged. It requires an ongoing commitment to evaluation and a willingness to look at such programs within the larger context of academic policies and administrative procedures. (MSE)