Historically, state departments of education, or SEAs, have--for the most part--been compliance-focused organizations that managed federal education policy. Over the past several decades, these agencies have been education policy implementation entities. Today, while their compliance responsibilities have remained, they are taking on more…

The article presents an account of how action learning principles were implemented to alleviate complex problems in universities. It focuses on the registrars and administrators under the academic Registrar's department. The Marquardt model of action learning was used in combination with the constructivist theories of learning, namely community of…

Henry W. Sams served on the editorial boards of "College English," "College Composition and Communication," and the "Journal of General Education." He was able to influence the kinds of articles on composition and rhetoric being published throughout this period, and he and his colleagues increased broad awareness of…

There is a pervasive and ongoing perception that leadership preparation is a problem. Important questions remain about the intentions, capacity, and impact of state departments of education engaged in leadership preparation program redesign. In this essay, I take up several issues concerning this state policy work, including whether a one size…

The purpose of this paper is to take a closer look at the states that have designed strong history standards and note what has made them exceptional so other states might do the same. They include Alabama, California, Indiana, Massachusetts, New York, and South Carolina. The report draws on interviews with individuals from each state who sat on…

This paper reports on a knowledge exchange project involving academics and practitioners in six local authority social work departments. It contributes to recent debates about the coproduction of knowledge, presenting findings in three key areas: the importance of relationships for knowledge exchange; "what works" for practitioners…

This paper demonstrates how the application of New Public Management (NPM) and the accompanying rise of academic capitalism in allocating research funds in the German academic field have interacted with a change from federal pluralism to a more stratified system of universities and departments. From this change, a tendency to build cartel-like…

The number of physics degrees earned in the U.S. continues to rise, with bachelor's and PhDs yet again reaching all-time highs. The 6,776 physics bachelor's degrees awarded in the 2011-2012 academic year represent an 8% increase over the previous year and an 86% increase from a recent low in 1999. Similarly, the number of PhDs (1,762) in…

This article examines how SEAs in three states designed, installed, and operated statewide, longitudinal student information systems (SLSIS). SLSIS track individual students' progress in K-12 schools, college, and beyond and link it to individual schools and teachers. They are key components of the information infrastructure of test-based…

Partnerships between state stakeholders, researchers, and schools are often idealised as a way to create innovative solutions to persistent problems in education, and portrayed with deterministic histories. This paper argues that these relationships often begin long before they are formalised and are at times dictated by circumstantial timing. A…

This publication explores quickly deployable, high-impact tactics that State education agencies (SEAs) and local educational agencies (LEAs) are using to make their evaluation systems more manageable. It also examines the foundation upon which States and school districts must build high-quality, manageable evaluation systems.

In 1974, Brown University's Department of Anthropology denied tenure to assistant professor Louise Lamphere. Convinced that her dismissal was the product of sex discrimination, Lamphere filed suit against Brown. Lamphere and three other female scholars who joined her suit successfully pressed Brown into an out-of-court settlement in 1977.…

States serve a special role in the nation's public education system. Through elected legislatures, states have endowed their various state departments of education with powers over public education, which include granting authority to local entities--typically school districts--to run schools. In their oversight capacity, states--traditionally…

This Issue Brief states that, in spite of the obvious "reciprocal relationship" between housing and school policy, government housing and education agencies have rarely collaborated to promote the common goals of racial and economic integration. Recent efforts to promote collaboration among housing and school agencies have focused on…

Physics bachelor's degree production has more than doubled since the recent low in 1999 and total enrollments in US undergraduate physics programs continue to increase. The all-time high of 7,526 bachelor's degrees in the class of 2014 represents the 15th consecutive year that the number of physics bachelor's conferred has increased. First-year…