Over the past few decades there has been a rapid expansion in alternative "fast track" routes for teacher preparation. Among the most aggressive of these are Teach for All (TFA) schemes characterized not only by their ultra fast entry to teaching (6-7 week course) but also by their underlying philosophy that the so called…

Following the end of the 1956 Revolution, a significant number of university students fled Hungary and the human capital flooding into Austria drew the attention of universities worldwide. The cold war and its influence on international student organisations and on the domestic conceptualisation of refugees in the USA contextualise this case study…

The newly created Conservative Education Reform Network (CERN) at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) invited a group of conservative education thinkers to sketch policy proposals that they would like to see in a new education agenda. The only requirement was that they offer suggestions that would complement the traditional conservative…

This article focuses on the increased power of venture philanthropy to shape education in urban communities of color in the USA. The author situates venture philanthropy's expanded influence in urban school districts in the nexus of urban disinvestment, neoliberal governance, wealth concentration, and economic crisis. The author argues that…

The Common Core State Standards Initiative seeks to prepare all students to graduate high school without remedial needs, to improve transparency across states' accountability systems, and to foster efficiencies in the development and distribution of educational resources. The reform was adopted in more than 40 states and has been described as…

In this paper we illustrate the relationships between Teach For America (TFA) and federal charter school reform to interrogate how policy decisions are shaped by networks of individuals, organizations, and private corporations. We use policy network analysis to create a visual representation of TFA's key role in developing and connecting…

Developing good citizens is an historic role for higher education (Sullivan & Rosin, 2008) and the emergence of service-learning as a pedagogical strategy has heightened attention to the intentional educational objectives to be addressed in higher education. This article examines the role of service-learning in developing philanthropic values…

It is often noted that children spend most of their waking hours out of school. What they do during non-school hours is important, because access to high-quality learning, both in and out-of-school, is key to cognitive, social-emotional, and physical development. In the United States today, demand for after-school programs outstrips supply: 8.4…

In this opinion piece, Michael Toscano writes that his criticism of the Common Core State Standards ultimately has very little to do with their innate quality, but rather that their relation to other social spheres is disordered. He refers to the full reordering of American education away from families and local communities--which he states are…

When it comes to reforming American education, today's would-be reformers only get it half right. On the one hand, they correctly argue that statutes, rules, regulations, and contracts make it difficult for schools and school system leaders to drive improvement and lead. On the other hand, they wrongly overlook the fact that school officials have…

The rise in the influence of and spending by educational philanthropists and foundations over the past two decades, especially in the area of market-based reforms, such as charter schools, vouchers, and merit pay, is evident across the United States. Largely due to philanthropic investments, relatively new educational intermediary organizations…

In January 2011, teams of government education leaders and grantmakers from 13 states convened for Moving Forward with a Transformative Education Agenda: Practical Solutions for States and Districts, a first-ever national discussion of how grantmakers and state and local education officials might work together to promote elementary and secondary…

For years, critics have pointed to the decreasing ability of health-care professionals to make decisions and provide services because of the demands of insurance companies and health-management organizations to sustain profits. Health-care decisions are increasingly being made by the wrong people and for the wrong reasons. So, too, with public…

Fifteen years ago, the Australian state of Queensland was famous more for its beaches than for its brain power. Fellow Australians thought of Queenslanders as miners, farmers, or surfers, not as professors or scientists. When Queensland announced in 1998 that it was planning to become a "Smart State," or a knowledge economy, locals…

Philanthropists across the country have long supported local schools and even funded new ones--primarily charters. These investments make a difference, sometimes a big one. At best, however, these are small-scale successes compared to the challenge of improving educational outcomes and life prospects for students across a whole district. The…