The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) invited states to use multiple measures of "higher-order thinking skills and understanding," including "extended-performance tasks," to create state assessment systems that support teaching for deeper learning. However, few states have been able to navigate federal assessment requirements…

This article aims to understand how access, equity and redress challenges are addressed at South Africa's public universities based on their current funding frameworks. Relying on a pragmatic research approach combining desk-research literature review and secondary data analysis, government funding and tuition fees were found to be the primary…

There is a growing call to reconsider current approaches to national and state assessment system policies and practices. State and local education agency leaders, educators, community leaders, and advocates have voiced concerns that current state assessment systems--defined primarily by end-of-year multiple-choice tests--are unable to meet…

The higher education system in Nepal has witnessed major achievements and challenges in the past few decades. This paper takes stock of the way the system has evolved and is now mismanaged, with a particular attention to the overall structure, financial management, quality control, and human resources that are central to fulfilling its societal…

Transition to distant education modality due to COVID-19 pandemic raised concerns about widening educational inequalities worldwide. This article examines Amazonian Indigenous youths' access to upper secondary schooling in Ecuador and the resilience of the Intercultural Bilingual Education system in the face of global health emergency with other…

Recent discourse about the fourth industrial revolution has revealed several issues in Korea, suggesting the need for fundamental changes in the industrial structure and higher education systems, which can prepare Korea for potential periods of technological unemployment. For example, labour expenses in Korea are predicted to be rapidly reduced if…

In this portrait, Simone A. Fried investigates the first six months of a state education department's takeover of a public school district. Using interviews, observations, and artifact analysis, the article explores how school district employees experience the significant reorganization of governance structures and policies that accompanies…

General education is a subject with rich contents and that is highly contested in the field of higher education studies. It has been highly praised for its core concepts such as broad educational targets, liberating educational objectives, and balanced educational content. Looking back at the course of general education in China over the past 20…

The study explored how a group of private Haredi (ultra-Orthodox Jewish) schools legitimized an innovative non-mandatory reform. Specifically, it examined the circumstances that facilitated and hindered a "coincidence of wants" between the schools and the Ministry of Education, which resulted in signing agreements that changed the status…

President al-Sisi has declared 2019 to be the 'Year of Education', whereby a National Project is to be launched to reform the education system. These proposed reforms are crucial, yet the politics driving them and their implications for al-Sisi's regime remain unclear. Discussions surrounding how education is political and can help protect…

The paper focuses on the current situation and domestic context of Indonesia's higher education system. It introduces trends, goals, and policies the government has issued to narrow the gap between domestic economic development and the challenges brought about by globalization. The author analyses the results the state has achieved as of today and…

Over the period 2017-2021 the attitude of the French public and policymakers towards early years education and care changed, resulting in early childhood development (ECD), particularly the affective and social components, increasingly being recognised as a priority, with early childhood education and care (ECEC) services enjoying more government…

Mexico's implementation of mandatory teacher assessments in 2013 was part of a group of federal reforms aimed at enhancing the quality of state-run education. The reforms elicited strong opposition from key stakeholders. Building on the idea that policy capacities are the set of capabilities necessary to perform policy functions, we examine the…

The COVID-19 global pandemic resulted in the cancellation of face-to-face classes in Mexico, as it did across the world. This paper focuses on the experiences of 75 rural teachers in Mexico, who represent a minority in a country where approximately 80% of the population lives in urban areas. An online survey was administered to participants, who…

In this article, South Africa provides an "outlier" case study that illuminates the tensions that exist between interventions, aimed at tailoring initiatives to the vastly unequal contexts of schooling, and the systemic "one size fits all" interventions of the state. I draw on the experiences of two teachers involved in an…