This book examines the idea of educational accountability in higher education, which has become a new secular gospel. But do accountability policies actually make colleges better? What if educational accountability tools don't actually measure what they're supposed to? What if accountability data isn't valid, or worse, what if it's meaningless?…

Michigan policymakers and advocates are calling on the state to adopt a new school funding formula that provides additional funding to students with greater educational need, such as students with greater economic need. For Michigan students who have been identified as economically disadvantaged, at least a 35 percent weight is necessary for…

This article brings into relief two "desiderata" in childrearing, the importance of which the pandemic has made clearer than ever. The first is to ensure that, in schools as well as outside them, children have ample opportunities to enjoy goods that are particular to childhood: unstructured time, to be spent playing with other children,…

This paper explores the impact of the contraction of the mass HE system (after 2005) on rural youth who represent the biggest disadvantages group in Polish higher education. It provides empirical evidence that the system contraction is the major reason for widening access for rural youth to public (prestigious) higher education institutions. By…

Despite a visual turn in the field of history of education, including visual sources has far from become standard practice when writing histories of education or when considering children's voices from the past. Yet photographs can be especially fruitful when considering marginalised children who left few traces in other records. Building upon…

This paper aims to examine the case for a focus on place-based drivers of inequalities in educational attainment among secondary school students in Scotland. Using desk-based sources, it provides an account of the post-2015 policy episode around improving educational attainment among children from disadvantaged areas. This started with the…

This article considers Participatory Arts and sociocultural understandings of justice and praxis through the example of Big "h"ART, an Australian multi-award winning provider where both artists and participants -- often disenfranchised and marginalised young people -- co-create the work (Matarasso, 2018). Enacting social justice…

This paper examines the role of the UK's post-16 education and training system in supporting the young unemployed. It maps the trajectory of a series of time-limited policy initiatives, which have attempted to install a training system for young people alongside containing fluctuating levels of youth unemployment. The impact of the expansion of…

Sport is often framed as a panacea for social disharmony, especially within the context of marginalised youth populations, and is widely promoted as a mechanism through which a multiplicity of social policy objectives can be achieved. Yet while political rhetoric has long pointed towards sport's transformative abilities, the basis for such claims…

It is widely agreed that the relationship between poverty and education is bi-directional: poor people lack access to a decent education, and without the latter people are often constrained to a life of poverty (Van der Berg, 2008). Poverty as a "lifetime, and life-wide status" thus develops into a self-fulfilling prophecy that is…

Educational theory and practice is dominated by mass formal schooling systems, which routinely and unjustly harm many students. I call this stance "educational pacifism," and in this paper argue that Montessorians ought to be educational pacifists. That is, they ought to recognize, understand, and reject systemic educational harm and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to inform readers about the nature of talent development prior to post-secondary education; describe the obstacles that individuals face because of poverty, racism or geography; and recommend asset-based approaches that can enable more individuals to be prepared to make significant contributions to society…

This report was commissioned by the independent review of children's social care. It explores the post-secondary school activities of individuals who took their GCSE exams in England in 2010/11, focusing on the outcomes of those who were in need compared to all individuals. The "Post-16 education and labour market activities and outcomes of…

Background: Equity is invoked as a watchword in teacher education--a catch-all connected to an array of issues related to diversity, justice, or gaps in outcomes and opportunities for minoritized groups. This conceptual article argues that equity is often undefined and undertheorized in teacher education, and the complexities involved in…

Early educational interventions, such as Head Start, have been widely recognized as an effective way to mitigate the negative effects of poverty on early learning and development (Camilli, Vargas, Ryan, & Barnett, 2010). In the past decade, there has been a strong expansion of early childhood programming, including Head Start and state-funded…