Canadian autism policy has been unusually contentious, with parents resorting to litigation to secure services for their children in several provinces. To ascertain whether consensus was possible on improving services, we conducted an in-depth qualitative interview study with 39 parents, policymakers and researchers across the country. Parents…

Although research has shown that student engagement is strongly related to performance on assessment tasks, especially for traditionally underserved subgroups of students, increasing student engagement has not been the goal of standardized tests of content knowledge. Recent state and federal policies, however, are changing the assessment…

"Education and Social Mobility" examines Government plans to improve upward mobility in England and considers the chances of success in the light of qualitative interviews with 88 school students. The 15- to 19-year-olds in two state secondary schools were invited to reflect on their lives, education and dreams of the future. Their…

Open methods for coordinating (OMC) education policies in the EU rely on a number of techniques, one of which is policy learning. This article examines how policy learning and governance transform each other. More specifically, policy-learning in the education OMC becomes differentiated into four distinct learning styles: mutual, competitive,…

Purpose: The expansion of alternative education, globally, has coincided with a shift towards greater accountability for ensuring educational access and opportunity, high academic standards and increased graduation rates. While studies suggest the pervasive influence of accountability may be redefining how school leaders provide meaningful…

During the post-World War II era, most U.S. colleges and universities began to promote diversity and internationalization ideals. However, the extent to which U.S. higher education institutions have been successful in achieving diversity, especially in relation to stimulating diverse social interactions between the international and American…

The ideologies underpinning public/private partnerships (PPPs) have been much contested in theory, but what does promulgating a social partnership mean in practice? This qualitative research study has been "critiquing" a construct of "ecologies of learning" or "capacities of capital" for social partnerships between…

Interview data exemplify students' attempts to integrate the concepts of electrochemistry with related knowledge that they had previously constructed or acquired in other classes. The implications for minimizing potential misconceptions center on the difficulties students experience when using more than one model for explaining scientific…

Issues in vocational development for disabled youth in Honduras, Central America, were the focus of an intensive short-term qualitative research effort. Among the research objectives were identifying promising employment opportunities and determining areas where modest investments of technical assistance or other resources would have maximum…

Explains science teachers' perceptions and decisions about the development and implementation of a science/technology/society curriculum. Discusses the teacher interviews based on teachers' decisions. Summarizes five themes: concerns over content, discomfort with grouping, uncertainties about evaluation, frustrations about student population, and…

Reports on 18 months of action research that examined the effectiveness of using the history of science to promote British students' understanding of the nature of science. Both quantitative and interview data offer substantial evidence of a strategic movement away from serendipitous empiricism and toward an appreciation of the interactive nature…

Noting that the growing popularity of year-round schools (extended calendar without increasing the number of school days) has coincided with an increase in school accountability, this report provides a descriptive case study on one year-round school located within a large elementary school district in central Virginia. An optional year-round…

A policy study (1992-94) investigated how three exemplary states have implemented transition services for youth with disabilities. Document evaluation and interviews (N=74) with key policymakers and implementors resulted in identifying seven themes that contributed to the successful initiation and continuation of transition policies, practices,…

In this theme issue of The "OSSC Bulletin" educators speak out about what they think their schools are doing right. The project goal was to select schools with varied socioeconomic backgrounds from different parts of the state, as well as to include at least one rural school and one innercity school. The two elementary schools, two…