The collegial model of organizational governance, common in universities in developing countries, is seen as unsustainable without external supervision because it will tend to create an authoritarian administration that will impair collegial norms and misallocate scarce resources. Limiting administrative scope through external scrutiny or charter…

Discusses results of an Australian study showing how wealthy schools use their greater material and human resources to establish a relatively sophisticated computer education culture, compared with poorer schools. Students from well-off families, especially boys, benefit by being prepared for elite jobs. Educators committed to equity must be…

The conjunction of development funding and educational research in Africa and the dominating role of a single agency, the World Bank, have consequences for research and educational policy: structuring of research according to agency constructs and policies, legitimation of poorly supported propositions, lack of critical review, a fixation on…

By 1997, the New York State Board of Regents had required that all students take rigorous Regents exams to graduate from public high schools. A research symposium was called to examine financial system changes necessary for implementing standards and high-stakes tests. Other states' approaches are summarized. (MLH)

Education policy should be aimed at creating the most equitable system possible. Equity is measured in terms of opportunity, not inputs or outputs. Equal opportunity means providing educational goods and services to each student regardless of his/her educationally irrelevant characteristics and with regard to his/her educationally relevant…

Affordability--the ability of students and other funders to contribute to the support of colleges and universities--is a topic of increasing salience. In this Resource Review, we examine the affordability of college from two perspectives: from that of students and their families, and from that of the state. We also identify many references to…

The critical importance of the early childhood years and the rights perspective to human development has made policy and programming for early childhood development an imperative for every nation. In India, poverty, changing economic and social structures resulting in the breakdown of traditional coping mechanisms and family care systems, and the…

This report is a compilation of responses to 11 questions from the Ohio Legislative Committee of Education Oversight concerning issues of special education funding and inclusion. Five questions on finance issues address: which special education funding mechanisms ensure that school districts are responsible for a portion of special education…

This paper explores efforts of Mexico and the United States to obtain a significant return on their investment in postsecondary education. The authors establish a context for comparison between Mexico and the United States and discuss the challenges and central policy dilemmas that each country faces in implementing the policy tools of evaluation…

The stated purpose of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational, Technical, and Applied Technology Act is to make the United States more competitive in the world economy by developing more fully the academic and occupational skills of all segments of the population. The Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) proposes to achieve this purpose by…

The socioeconomic problems that arose in Argentina during the 1980s hurt the country's education system--one that historically has been among the most advanced in the region. Resources became scarcer, and the government's expenditures for education fell below regional and other international standards. This report proposes four policies to stop…

This document reviews the issue of class size reduction, analyzes the evidence from research on the relationship between class size and educational improvement, and cites findings supporting the view that the costs of class size reduction outweigh the benefits and that reducing class size to improve student achievement is inconsistent with the…

This publication focuses on the part of OECD member countries' educational systems that is directly or indirectly financed by the government, examining educational expenditures in the context of conflicting claims of national resources. Chapter 1 surveys the rapid growth in expenditures through the 1960s and outlines some of the similarities in…

This volume is the final in a 4-part series of monographs comprising a broad investigation of teacher collective action in local school districts. It presents the results of investigations of the shortrun and probable longrun impact of negotiating activity between school boards and teacher organizations in 22 selected school districts across the…

This book begins with an examination of school inequality in the United States. The discussion focuses successively on the issues of: the paradox of unequal schools in a welfare state, the distribution of educational resources in American cities: some new empirical evidence, inequalities in the allocation of educational resources among cities and…