The relationship between knowledge and literacy is a central concern for all teachers. In his teaching, Palek noted that his students were struggling to understand complex substantive concepts such as "parliament" and decided to explore the relationship between students' understanding of a concept and their wider substantive knowledge…

In this research brief we present the results of a recent needs assessment evaluating the advocacy-based needs for Kentuckians with developmental disabilities and their families. Results highlight the different levels and types of supports needed to build self-advocacy capacity and to inform effective planning and services and the individual,…

Politics, as in many spheres of life in the Philippines, is still very much a male enclave. From the smallest government unit up to the national level, men dominate (Gemba, 2001). The study aimed to find out the factors that facilitates or restrains women candidates from participating in the political arena. This study was conducted among Lady…

In 2009, a seldom-used policy lever emerged in the form of a competitive grant program, Race to the Top (RTTT), and sparked a flurry of state-led initiatives as states vied for federal dollars. The current study examines the policymaking context that surrounded these events and propelled Tennessee to the top of the race among the states. Through…

The research brief, "Parliamentary Privilege", looks at the educational backgrounds of candidates in winnable seats. The study included candidates selected by mid-December 2014 who were replacing serving MPs for the same party or in target seats with a reasonable possibility of winning. More than half of the candidates attended Russell…

Policymakers and educational leaders continue to use school district decentralization as a reform effort that attempts to shift power and authority from central office administration to school-level leadership. In 2015, the Nevada Legislature passed legislation to restructure the Clark County School District (CCSD), the state's largest school…

With increasing frequency, U.S. presidents have orchestrated relations between federal and state governments. A defining feature of this "executive federalism" is a pragmatic willingness to both borrow from and reconstitute very different types of past federalisms. A case in point is President Barack Obama's Race to the Top (RttT)…

Public institutions in the United States face a policy challenge to adapt to accountability expectations among a variety of stakeholders (Bogue & Hall, 2012; Thelin, 2004; Richardson & Martinez, 2009). Among the major stakeholders are state legislators who hold fiscal and policy influence over public institutions, but these leaders have…

The purpose of the study was to broaden awareness of legislative intentions associated with a State's facilities funding policy (Texas' Instructional Facilities Allotment, IFA). Recognizing the politically contested nature of school funding, arguments in support and against investing in facilities appear equally replete. Be that as it may, some…

Presupposition, a linguistic element can be employed in utterances. When this is done it enhances the comprehension of what is being communicated. This aspect of language that is implicit assumption of an utterance is a strategy that may be used to express a speaker's socio-political dominance. The truth of what is said is taken for granted and…

Governments make policy decisions in the same areas in quite different institutions. Some assign policymaking responsibility to institutions designed to be insulated from myopic partisan and electoral pressures and others do not. In this study, we claim that differences in political context and institutional design constrain the policy choices…

Research on evaluation has mainly focused on the use of evaluation and has given little attention to the origins of evaluation demand. In this article, I consider the question of why parliamentarians demand evaluations with parliamentary requests. Building on the literature of delegation, I use a principal-agent framework to explain the origins of…

This reports builds on from the previous report "Parliamentary Privilege--The Candidates" and examines the backgrounds of Members of Parliament (MPs) in the new House of Commons. The following findings are discussed: (1) Almost a third (32%) of MPs in the new House of Commons was privately educated. This means that the new House is only…

This paper seeks to examine studies on participation of women in governance as applicable to the local government levels in Nigeria. Again, it sets out to identify what propelled the quest for more women participation in governance. Examination of treatments given to women by both male and female counterparts is critically explored. The paper…

This white paper provides the conclusion of the 21st Century School Fund and JFW, Inc. inquiry into and analysis of Wyoming's current programs for managing and funding its K-12 public school facilities. The Wyoming School Facilities Department engaged 21CSF and JFW, Inc. to provide an independent analysis of the state's current building portfolio…