Maintains that assumptions which are fundamental to sound day care program development and implementation relate to the family first and to the needs of children second. Parental involvement, sources and types of financial support, and the needs of individuals should be of concern to policymakers. (Author/DB)

Educational legislation has ascribed several roles for the federal government, including: (1) to supplement and complement the efforts of state and local agencies; and (2) to improve the quality of education. The Intergovernment Advisory Council on Education was created to provide assistance and make recommendations concerning intergovernmental…

The nature and effects of Australian efforts to create and maintain quality higher education are examined, focusing on specific government initiatives and on international trends and influences. It is suggested that even the best quality assurance processes do not guarantee good results, and that quality is a complex phenomenon depending on an…

As in the past, the nation's schools are used as a catchall for problem social issues and as scapegoats for the current U.S. economic predicament. If America is to develop a competitive economy and a strong society, quality education will have to be provided to all our children, including the disadvantaged. Includes 10 references. (MLH)

The capacity of the Australian university system is being steadily undermined by government policies, which erode infrastructure, destroy faculty career opportunities, and threaten commitment to teaching and research. Acceptance of current policies amounts to collaboration in the erosion of the universities. Those committed to educational quality…

The prospect of overseeing the rapid preparation of many participants in fast-track alternative certification programs presents several challenges for state education officials who seek to maintain, or even enhance, the quality of the state's teaching force. This study examined a range of fast-track alternative teacher certification programs in 11…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Bush Budget Proposes Spending Freeze for U.S. Department of Education: Title I, Striving Readers, Statewide Data…

This paper discusses the key issues and concerns in the Cambodian government's efforts to implement three priority education policies for 2006-2010: ensure equitable access to education; increase quality and efficiency of the education services; and promote institutional development and capacity building for decentralisation. This paper identifies…

School education in Australia is a complex interplay between federal and state governments, and between government and non-government schools. This article explores the supervision of schools in Australia through school accountability systems. Utilising publicly available documents a systematic analysis of the state and territory systems for…

Whereas internationally the shift towards quality control of school systems started in the early 1980s, mainly promoted by transnational agencies, this development only began in Germany in the mid 1990s. However, a clear-cut change from an input-controlled and centralised to a more output-controlled, decentralised and deregulated supervision…

This paper presents a model of the approaches open to government to ensure that early childhood services are affordable to families. We derived the model from a comparative literature review of affordability approaches taken by government, both in Australia and internationally. The model adds significantly to the literature by proposing a means to…

This book presents a comprehensive collection of information concerning different forms of child care, the quality and availability of care, the functioning of the child care market, and programs that the government uses to support this market. Following an introduction that outlines the negative consequences of splitting education and child care,…

In a wide-ranging speech on the question of educational quality in Great Britain, the author observes that the achievement of higher quality "demands the will to act in a hundred ways, even to the point of sacrifice, on the part of teachers, managers, governors, local authorities, the government, parents, newspapers, radio and T.V., and the…

This volume presents the proceedings of hearings concerning the allocation of Title I funds to States, districts, and individual schools. Proposals and a discussion of a bill introduced to change the allocation formula from an economic base to an achievement base are included. Other issues discussed in this volume are: the Elementary and Secondary…

The Council on Postsecondary Accreditation states the purposes of accreditation to be the assurance of quality and self-improvement of institutions. Neither goal is well served by a single process. A process designed to distinguish acceptable from unacceptable performance should be different in character from one to improve an institution. (MLW)