This commentary highlights important contributions of four empirical investigations of how people sort through the masses of information that are now available to them and find what they need to solve some problem or make some decision. These studies demonstrate the impact of differences among information sources and the role that these…

In his paper, Michael Merry poses an interesting and important question: How can we navigate between two often opposing interests--that of protecting the welfare of our society's children and that of protecting their liberties by avoiding paternalism? While Merry lays out his argument with clarity and insight into the risks and harm that state…

The nation's lawmakers have frequently voiced the basic principle that important policy decisions should be evidence based. In this commentary, the authors describe the approach the U.S. Department of Education has taken in its Increasing Educational Productivity project. The authors argue that the department's actual practice in this instance has…

The purpose of the "Evidence to Practice" commentary is to highlight an issue or research finding in selected articles, emphasizing the relevance to practice. This article introduces a new tool designed to summarize the most up-to-date evidence in an easily readable format, in order to provide clinically useful answers within minutes for assisting…

Democratic leadership rests on sacred values, awareness, judgement, motivation and courage. Four turning points in a 38-year school administrator's career revealed decision-making in problematic moments stemmed from values in a personal and professional code of ethics. Reflection on practice and theory added vocabulary and understanding to make…

School systems across the country are experiencing collateral damage from the Great Recession and struggle to balance their budgets in the face of decreased local revenue, cuts to state funding, and the disappearance of federal stimulus and jobs money. School district leaders describe their fiscal problems in crisis terms, and respond to immediate…

Jonathan Woocher's "Reinventing Jewish Education for the 21st Century" presents a vision for a reimagined system of Jewish education. The educational landscape is changing, Woocher says, both because of a myriad of contextual factors (economic, geopolitical, technological, sociological) and because of the very need for Jewish educational decision…

In her commentary of McPhail's 2013 article "Corporate Responsibility to Respect Human Rights and Business Schools' Responsibility to Teach It: Incorporating Human Rights into the Sustainability Agenda," Jane Andrew begins by highlighting a number of McPhail's primary arguments. She points out that McPhail sets out to achieve two things…

Urban districts throughout the nation are contending with declining enrollment, aging facilities in disrepair, persistently low student achievement, increased competition with charters, and severe fiscal constraints. Philadelphia is a case in point. Over the past year, the School District of Philadelphia (SDP) was forced to borrow $304 million…

This article aims to contribute to the discussion surrounding Manuela du Bois-Reymond's important "trendsetter learner" thesis and, in so doing, to join the wider debate about post-compulsory learning cultures. The article outlines the trendsetter learner thesis and then considers recent criticisms that it has attracted. While the author…

Media portrayals and education policies have combined with anecdotes about charter school successes to produce a favorable assessment of charter schools by two-thirds of Americans. Such media celebrations often group an array of charter school types together, thereby disguising their differences. Indeed, the public seems unaware there are…

This collection of nuanced, insightful papers is a welcome contribution to research and policy dialogue around international youth development. At the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the lead government agency for foreign assistance, a growing understanding of the profound links between the well-being of youth and…

In the United States there is such incredible complacency about both the meaning of democracy and America's position as the great democratic nation that there is very little, if any, public debate on what is meant by democracy and what responsibilities Americans bear as a democratic nation. In response to the editors' growing recognition of the…

Tsetsos, Usher, and Chater (2010) presented several criticisms of decision field theory (DFT) involving its distance function, instability under externally controlled stopping times, and lack of robustness to various multialternative choice scenarios. Here, we counter those claims with a specification of a distance function based on the…

The article argues for the participation and involvement of students in developing learning spaces within higher education. In early childhood education there is a strong emphasis upon rights, democracy and planning learning through listening to young children. Taking inspiration from this, the study explores the use of participatory approaches in…