The federal role in higher education has grown over the past two decades, and now a new administration has the opportunity to chart the direction of the country's colleges and universities. To help inform these decisions, the Urban Institute convened a bipartisan group of scholars and policy advisers to write a series of memos highlighting the…

Across the country, many large school districts have seen flat or declining enrollments in recent years, including in places where there's been concurrent growth in charter schools. The result has been a growing perception that charter expansion is coming at the expense of the health of traditional school districts--a perception that, even if…

Historically, New Zealand policy makers have defined quality teachers as those who form effective learning relationships with students and teach in culturally appropriate and responsive ways. Recent global emphasis on standardised test score improvement suggests that this definition is shifting, implying changes for the focus and the form of…

This paper analyses the perceived organisational legitimacy of the Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE) in preparing the population for work in the knowledge-based economy (KBE). It is argued that challenges to MOE's legitimacy are emerging with ramifications that are difficult to ignore. These challenges relate to equipping the population with…

In January Rep. John Kline (R-MN), chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, released two draft discussion bills to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, or ESEA. The Student Success Act and the Encouraging Innovation and Effective Teachers Act would increase state and local control over education. In the…

Although data driven-decision making has been the mantra of school reform for the last 10 years, school leaders benefit from frequent discussions in how to engage teachers in the process. As a result, the purpose of this paper is to apply Reeves' (2004) framework concerning Antecedents of Excellence in creating a school culture that routinely uses…

The right to education is an internationally recognized right. As part of the global movement for Education for All in the past two decades, the right to basic education has emerged in international law, and it carries international obligations--political and legal--on account of collective commitments by the international community for its…

This article focuses on the planning and organisation of teachers' continuous professional development as part of the nationally representative "Schools and Continuing Professional Development in England--State of the Nation" research study (SoNS), commissioned by the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA). Thematic analysis…

In an examination of higher education's role, uncertainty alone is believed to afford freedom to continue the quest for truth. The belief is affirmed that it is possible to be uncertain, accept no closed system of thought, and at the same time possess a constructive faith. (Article originally published in 1951.) (AF)

Tanzania is experiencing an effort to make education relevant that is, in many ways, unique. Its policies in education are revolutionary in terms of the system it inherited at independence as well as in terms of the purposes of schooling as they have been implemented throughout history. (Author)

This report finds two fundamental problems threatening higher education's ability to help America succeed in challenging times: first, the lack of recognition by state and national leaders of higher education's value; and, second, the lack of recognition by colleges and universities of their need to change. The report presents recommendations to…

This paper addresses societal transformations and higher education's response to these changes and argues that a much larger and deeper change is occurring which should be examined within the context of a paradigm shift. The paper begins with a brief review of the theoretical literature on paradigms; then it demonstrates the use of these…

In the wake of the women's movement of the 1960's and 1970's, sexism has emerged as an issue in American education. Sexism refers to rigidly prescribed and therefore limiting roles for either sex. The American school, since its beginning, has been given the responsibility for teaching attitudes and values and for preparing young people for…

The first part of this presentation lists four basic assumptions pertaining to educating black students humanistically and discusses each in relation to its impact on the public schools' capability to educate blacks effectively and meaningfully. These assumptions are: that black students can be educated by the public schools, that schools are…

Responsibilities of the formal education system in the collaborative effort among various parts of the Department of Labor, community based organizations, and the formal education system called for by the Youth Employment Demonstration Projects Act (YEDPA) of 1977 are addressed in this paper. Its basic thesis is that, as education discharges its…