Indian Education Formula Grants represent the U.S. Department of Education's largest investment in addressing the unique academic and cultural needs of American Indian and Alaska Native students. The program is aimed at supporting services that are responsive to the unique cultural, language, and educational needs of these students and help them…

New Leaders and the George W. Bush Institute's Alliance to Reform Education Leadership (AREL) released a report entitled "Great Principals at Scale: Creating District Conditions that Enable All Principals to Be Effective" in June 2014. This brief summarizes the framework presented in that report and recommends actions that states and the…

The new normal for local, state and federal governments is fiscal austerity. Although President Obama supported education during his State of the Union address and in his budget proposal to Congress, cash-strapped localities and states--which foot most of the bill for educating America's children--may have to balance their budgets with cuts to…

Looking at the rise of world-class universities through history, creating an institutional environment in which universities are relatively autonomous, while also ensuring effective material support from the government is essential for the formation of world-class universities. It is worth examining the deteriorating academic environment in China…

The creation of multiple academies and the introduction of free schools across England is a policy-borrowing initiative that has had much debate from various actors in society. Many criticisms have been levelled at the government's plans and many individuals and organisations have called for them not to come on stream, but instead for the…

The Conference Board of Canada ranked us 14th out of the 17 major industrialized nations on measures of innovation, and our "productivity" track record has fared no better. Experts around the world agree that education is the key foundational building block for innovation skill development, and that the seeds of innovation--curiosity,…

Since the rise of the Internet, the act of border crossing has become a pursuit that must necessarily be conceptualized in both real and virtual terms. By using theories connected to virtual communities, new technologies, fan cultures and tourism, this paper seeks to show that the culturally productive activities of a transnational virtual…

This article provides an overview of a mother-tongue education project for the Ju|'hoansi of Nyae Nyae in Namibia--the village schools. These schools are the only places in southern Africa where an Indigenous San community has access to mother-tongue education for 3 years; and are, thus, an important example in the region. However, there are some…

During the Franco period, one of the objectives of the government was the so-called "regeneration of the suburbs". Education was, among the solutions proposed, the one discussed most frequently. This article hopes to show that, during these years, a multifaceted model of popular education arose which could be called "suburban…

President Obama's FY 2013 budget request includes another major spending increase for the Department of Education--2.5 percent more than last year--to nearly $70 billion. American taxpayers are calling for spending restraint in Washington, yet President Obama's proposals would exacerbate the existing bureaucratic maze of federal programs and…

The basic currency of higher education--the credit hour--represents the root of many problems plaguing America's higher education system: the practice of measuring time rather than learning. "Cracking the Credit Hour" traces the history of this time-based unit, from the days of Andrew Carnegie to recent federal efforts to define a credit…

Across the nation, a surprising number of both critics and advocates of urban schools demonstrate a naivete about the limits and possibilities of funding in relationship to the academic success of urban students. On one hand, critics often argue, without solid evidence or informed analysis, that urban school districts have sufficient funds to…

Present higher education reforms in the Nordic countries diminish the role and influence of the state on the governance of higher education institutions. While still providing a framework for the management of higher education, in general, the state supervises rather than controls higher education institutions (HEIs). The rhetoric of change…

As described in "Go8 Backgrounder 24: Answering the Global Challenge--Experiences from European Excellence Initiatives," Germany began a debate about how to strengthen its position as an excellent location for science and research in 2004. This debate focussed in particular on the competitiveness of the country's universities and…

This case study describes the school turnaround programs underway as of summer 2009 in Ontario, Canada. In particular, it focuses on the policies and efforts of the Ontario Ministry of Education (MOE) and an MOE department, the Literacy and Numeracy Secretariat (LNS), to support low-performing schools across the province. The report begins with a…