Public elementary and secondary education, a vast, uneven and complex system, is the most significant cost to local government and one of the largest costs to state government in Virginia. Meeting this cost has become even more difficult as the state and nation continue to struggle with the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression.…

Governing public schools is one of the most important responsibilities a citizen can undertake. School board members work on behalf of all the families in their community, with fellow board members and with other community partners, to ensure that each student has equal and ample opportunities to reach his or her greatest potential. This guide…

Public undergraduate higher education institutions face a number of seemingly intractable problems. Among those problems are cost, accountability and access. The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award process is designed to help organization of any type address problems of organizational performance. This process has been used by manufacturing,…

The Supreme Court has played a crucial role in shaping education over ASBO International's first century of existence. Accordingly, this column, the first of two on the Supreme Court and education, inaugurates ASBO's centennial year with a retrospective look at key cases that were litigated in K-12 school settings around the issue of equal…

A key factor motivating the organisation of tutorial classes for adult learners, based on collaboration between the Workers' Educational Association and universities in England and Wales, was a belief that they offered an educational vehicle for the promotion of liberal concepts of political citizenship. Attempts to disseminate this tutorial class…

William Horsley (1775-1858) was active in London from the late 1790s. A founder member of the Philharmonic Society, Horsley was at the heart of the musical establishment, working as a composer, organist, commentator and teacher. His teaching career spanned over 50 years, during which time he took private pupils, trained choristers and organists…

Education is important for all children, but even more so for children with disabilities, whose social and economic opportunities may be limited. In this article, Laudan Aron and Pamela Loprest assess how well the nation's education system is serving students with disabilities. Aron and Loprest trace the evolution of the special education system…

Universities around the world have been affected by the recent global economic crisis. Many are challenged by reduced resources, yet they also face greater demands to help spur recovery in their respective countries. This paper explores how colleges and universities in the United States were affected by, and subsequently responded to, several 20th…

The state of California educates over six million or twelve percent of the nation's student population. Approximately three million are Latino and 1.5 million are classified as English Language Learners (ELLs). English Language Learners are significantly underperforming in math and reading compared to White students in all grade levels. The…

In Canada, education is generally referred to as being the exclusive constitutional responsibility of the provinces and territories. However, the federal government has a constitutional responsibility. This responsibility comes from the Constitution Act 1982 and Treaties 1-11 between the Crown (i.e., The Government of Canada) and First Nations…

China's "Compulsory Education Law," determining the development of compulsory education, was first promulgated in 1986 and then amended in 2006. It has been a symbolic milestone in the history of Chinese education. During two decades, there have been totally 8 influential reforms in compulsory education funding policy. From the viewpoint…

The marketisation of education in England began in the 1980s. It was facilitated by national testing (which gave objective and comparable information to parents), and by the New Public Management (which introduced a posteriori funding and competition among providers). Now a new complementary phase of marketisation is being introduced:…

In light of a slow economic recovery from the Great Recession, state and local governments are faced with the challenge of providing services to citizens amidst ongoing budgetary woes. For instance, although the most recent Indiana revenue collections for the month of August were above revised projections to help start fiscal year 2011 (which…

Traces the development of continuing education and contract training in publicly funded postsecondary institutions in British Columbia, Canada. The first section describes the changing orientation over time, while the second half considers themes across all categories of institution. The appendix describes each institution individually. This…

This article examines the controversy that ensued when the Education Department of the province of Ontario, Canada, granted the tender to publish elementary school readers to the T. Eaton Company, a department store, in 1909. This decision eliminated an important source of income for retail booksellers, who could not compete with the consumer…