Fueled by exponential advances in technology, the world will change more in the next few decades than in all of human history, futurist Thomas Frey says. Community college leaders will have to think beyond traditional structures such as semester-length courses and two-year degree programs, designing micro-learning experiences that better match…

As a discipline, international education focuses on developing an international consciousness. There are moral and ethical, as well as pragmatic, consequences of the development of an international consciousness: In terms of ethics and morality, international education inculcates positive attitudes towards international understanding and global…

In a teacher residency, candidates receive almost all of their training in their future job site: They spend at least a year in a pre-k through 12 classroom under the guidance of a highly effective mentor teacher. This on-the-job experience is complemented by coursework that is tightly linked to and builds upon their experiences in the classroom.…

Calls for increased interdisciplinary education have led to the development of numerous teaching methods designed to help teachers provide meaningful experiences for their students. However, methods of guiding teachers in the successful adoption of innovative teaching methods are not firmly set. This qualitative study sought to better understand…

In December 2015, President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced No Child Left Behind (NCLB), as the nation's major law governing public schools. ESSA retains the requirement that states test all students in reading and math in grades three through eight and once in high school, as well as the requirement that…

The lingering economic downturn has affected virtually every American institution--perhaps none more significantly than the nation's higher education system. These days, facing significant revenue shortfalls that are widely recognized as the "new normal," state-supported colleges and universities are looking, sometimes desperately, for…

Early education has been a growing priority for the Obama administration, and its competitive funding is spurring innovation in this field around the country. In 2013, early education journalist Paul Nyhan, author of this report, conducted case studies of four competitive grant programs that are triggering changes in early education: "Race to…

Rising costs and increasing global competition press institutions to do more with less. At the same time, deep budget cuts and a general social and political impatience have revived calls for reform in educational affordability, curriculum, and outcome measurement. Yet within this environment, a myriad of success stories are being forged among…

Calls for schools to "improve" are everywhere, but recently calls for schools to "transform" have proliferated, based on the idea that schools are not simply underperforming but outdated if not obsolete. Most prominently, scholars and authors such as Phillip Schlechty, Peter Senge, and Francis Duffy have targeted school and…

This report from Public Agenda is a summary of the process and outcomes of the "Difficult Dialogues" that took place in November 2008 at the 4th annual policy summit of the Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC). Nearly 200 state legislators, institutional and system-level leaders and governing board members, faculty, executive…

Issues in restructuring, based on the experiences of a former Minnesota Commissioner of Education, are presented in this paper. The restructuring of Minnesota schools could be characterized as movement from: K-12 to lifelong learning; ad hoc programs to a comprehensive policy for at-risk children; a few leaders to many leaders; inputs to outcomes;…

To explicate the factors behind standards implementation, the results of a project to develop and pilot test a process that bridges the gap between setting standards and improving student achievement is presented. The text focuses on the Implementing Academic Standards (IAS) program, which was designed to develop and pilot-test a process for…

In the first decade of the 21st century, the nation, the states, and colleges and universities began to grapple with the challenges of globalization, changing demography, the implications of the digital era, and of a less expansive public sector. Although not a transformative period for higher education, the decade saw significant innovations in…

Information about two possible actions as followups to school choice is provided in this paper, with attention to the concepts of teachers in private practice and charter schools. The movement of teachers in private practice involves educators as entrepreneurs who contract with school districts. Benefits include a high degree of accountability and…

Charter schools have been proposed as a compromise between public-school choice and voucher programs and as a way to promote innovation without privatizing education. The schools are largely free of bureaucratic supervision; in return, the schools agree to be held accountable for student performance levels. Two states, California and Minnesota,…