Identifies market and nonmarket returns to education over graduates' life cycle, as well as social benefit externalities. Considers most recent developments in measuring and evaluating these returns, relating them to costs. The capacity to finance lifelong learning depends on identification and measurement capacity and political processes. (149…

The Nordic tradition of folkeoplysning (Denmark, Norway) or folkbildning (Sweden) is a form of adult education--"people's enlightenment"--linked to the emergence of democracy. Differing social, political, and cultural emphases attached to "folk"/"people" in various European languages have implications for the role of…

This paper explores the changing nature of expectations for teachers in British Columbia from the first formal teacher examinations to the present day. The 130 years can be broken down into five reasonably distinct time periods, each of which had different ideas of what constituted right-minded teachers. Discussing how succeeding generations have…

The integration of digital tools and multimodal representations in the English classroom has the greatest potential when we define literacy as multiple socially constructed practices. If digital literacies are defined as autonomous tools and isolated symbolic systems, reduced to a set of skills and forms for students to reproduce, then school…

In this study, quantitative and qualitative methods were used to identify factors that best explain variations in state appropriations for Carnegie Public Research I Universities during the late 1990s. A combination of cultural, political, and institutional factors emerged as critical elements accounting for differences in support including…

Roles suggested for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in proposed national testing are discussed. Recent proposals center around monitoring, evaluation and accountability, and serving as a benchmark for other tests. Monitoring has been the traditional function of the NAEP, and in this role, its influence has been substantial.…

Controlled educational choice, defined as parental or student choice of educational programs within the public school system that is regulated for public purposes, has become a leading proposal for educational reform. This paper reviews evidence from three working models of choice: the Minnesota Postsecondary Enrollment Options program (PEO), the…

As more and more women return to the work force while their children are but infants, care other than by the mothers and outside the families' own homes has become an issue of major importance in the United States. In Europe, however, most governments subsidize infant care for mothers working outside the home. One country, Italy, has provided…

This book is based on a study of a 4-year reform effort in the Newark (New Jersey) public schools. The discussion focuses on an elementary school as it attempted reform in an effort that was ultimately unsuccessful. Part I opens the discussion of the effects of social class and race on educational reform. To see why inner city schools have not…

Issues in reform of international business and economics education at Tartu University (Estonia) are discussed, including need for faculty development, faculty reallocation, and redistribution of resources within the country's new social and economic context. It is argued that reform depends on effective integration of foreign experts with more…

Drawing on concepts from an institutional theory of organizations, this study describes policy, teacher union, and academic actors who shaped and promoted school-based management in the national arena, their interests, and the network that linked them. School-based management was at least partially the product of institutional environment. (SLD)

Reports on the evaluation of the Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) prevention program at several sites. Findings show a very small effect on children, but as has been the case for the Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program (DARE), GREAT will continue because of its importance to stakeholders and political symbolism. (SLD)

Explores the idea that the Reagan and Bush administrations, through their policies on the funding of higher education in particular, have had a negative impact on gains in the comparative rate of entry into professional occupations of African-American women. Such effects are the result of attempts to reestablish monopoly capitalism. (SLD)

Stresses key areas of political conflict in the certification of a national curricular content and explores trade-offs a national-standards approval group must make. The article analyzes left-wing support for explicit opportunity-to-learn standards and right-wing objections to educational outcomes and focuses on initial approval stages, not…

Describes changes in social roles, formal organizations, and social stratification arising from immigration in New Zealand during the 1980s. Examination reveals defects in the institutional structure of immigration. Immigration policy, immigrant policy, and ethnic relations policy are related to the less desirable effects of immigration in New…