This article, by Jackie Lambe, lecturer in education, and Robert Bones, lecturer in psychology, both from the University of Ulster, provides a useful review of the current state of policy, practice and teacher education relating to pupils with special educational needs in Northern Ireland. The authors use this review to launch their account of…

In Canada and elsewhere, governments are expending considerable effort in the production of inclusive education policy texts, resources allocation models, and programs. The author notes that despite of the analytic power and the political intent of inclusive education as a counterpoint to special education, its appropriation is imminent if not…

High school improvement initiatives often focus on specific intervention strategies, programs, or priority topics (e.g., dropout intervention). However, research shows that systemic and sustainable improvement can only be achieved when initiatives are implemented with consideration for the broader education contexts in which they operate. The…

Single-sex education describes a diverse range of situations, including individual classes, programs after school, required programs, voluntary programs, and programs to remedy gender inequities and encourage cultural and racial pride. This brief addresses the genesis and legality of single-sex classrooms, the merits and critiques of single-sex…

Teachers are facing an increasing number of changes in their job context, many of which significantly affect their work lives. This study offers a theoretical understanding of the changes in teachers' working conditions, starting from the intensification thesis. The case study of a Flemish (Belgian) elementary school shows the existence of various…

One of the ultimate goals of policy makers is to enable citizens to take advantage of a globalised world economy. This is leading them to focus on the improvement of education policies, ensuring the quality of service provision, a more equitable distribution of learning opportunities and stronger incentives for greater efficiency in schooling.…

Views recent educational reforms as "galloping centralization" resulting from states' excessive rationalism in legislating school improvement policy. A Vermont study shows that policymakers did not act in accord with a user perspective concerning local schools' policy environments and that Public School Approval, as a state policy,…

Administrators of schools can best exercise their responsibility to the public by keeping open well-run channels of communication. (CK)

Educational opportunity in the United States and Mexico is an important factor in the process of expanding social and economic opportunities, as well as political and civil rights in both countries. Yet, by national and international indicators, many Mexican American and Mexican children are underserved by public schools in both countries; and…

Article explores the question of local school control and whether or not it has ever existed in the American public school system. (GB)

Adoption of a learning-to-learn perspective in secondary agricultural education is affected by school policy, inservice training, and teachers' professional orientation. School management and policy must reflect the perspective that fostering the quality of students' independent learning is the central mission. School organizations should become…

Identifies a set of considerations for school systems and policy makers contemplating the development or improvement of alternative schools, including whether systems need more than one alternative school, how their effect should be judged, organization for instruction and for staffing, and how the learning environment should be arranged. (SR)

Data from a large school district in the southwestern United States were analyzed to investigate relations between student and school characteristics and high school freshman dropout patterns. Application of a multilevel logistic regression model to student dropout data revealed evidence of school-to-school differences in student dropout rates and…

This article provides an evaluation of the rationale for, and impact of, setting with English classes in the second year of secondary school in one Scottish authority. The Council's education department has a long-standing policy of mixed-ability classes in English for the first two years of secondary school (S2). A number of schools approached…