For too long, the middle grades have been racked by a mistaken narrative that this age group is simply too difficult, or that it's a time in life when one must simply endure rather than thrive. The Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) rejects that narrative. It is time for a unified policy agenda in support of the middle grades. This…

Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) scholars and practitioners (TPCers) see a need to intervene in a range of complex problems. Yet scholars such as Leah Ceccarelli and Lauren Cagle have noted a gap between scholarly research findings and policy changes. To address this gap, I theorize a strategic grounding framework, consisting of…

Increased international attention paid to research-based education has resulted in various national initiatives to exploit research in education. However, this poses challenges for school professionals. Based on an ethnographic single case study in a Swedish educational setting, this article investigates how national policy on research-based…

This article reports on a critical policy study on refugee education in two states of Australia, which involved an analysis of policy documents and interviews with policy developers. The findings show that policy development for students from refugee backgrounds is affected by structures including ways of knowing refugees, desires to measure their…

This article develops a country case study on the Polish higher education (HE) system governance regime by using the governance equalizer model to analyse how each reform over the last three decades has altered its formal power structure. In particular, we focus on the most recent HE governance reform (Law 2.0), which has not yet been addressed…

Within the last decades, a new way of policymaking has become increasingly prominent: civic hackathons. However, in education policy research, hackathons have not been broadly addressed so far. With this article, we contribute to closing this research gap by empirically investigating the educational #wirfürschule (#wfs) Hackathons that took place…

For more than 50 years, governmental and independent reviews have published proposals for strengthening adult learning opportunities, showing a remarkable consistency in the advice offered to government. They have, however, had little more than short-term impact on policy or provision. Since the early 2000s, under the influence of neoliberal…

In "Deliberative Policymaking," Elizabeth Grant advances a fresh framework for making collective decisions about US schools. Grant argues that education policy itself can be made fundamentally better by improving education policymaking methods. Informed by accounts of recent policymaking actions as well as her own considerable experience…

This article examines individualising processes in the context of Municipal Adult Education in Swedish for Immigrants (SFI). Demands to adapt education to individual students' needs are increasingly evident in adult education policies, requiring accountable authorities' active engagement in enacting effective organisational frameworks while…

This philosophical essay explores the purpose of educational leadership with a particular focus on where and how leaders interact with education policy. Building on the idea that the purpose of educational leadership should differ from that of business management, this paper analyzes how mechanisms of policy engineering might construct educational…

In Ireland as elsewhere, the value of putting evidence and scientific advice at the centre of public policy-making, has rarely been more evident. The prominence of the science-policy interface has renewed interest in the prospects for evidence based policy (EBP) in education. Notwithstanding the political rhetoric around EBP in education, little…

This article examines the contemporary Swedish policy responses to increased cultural and linguistic diversity in the field of early childhood education and care (ECEC). More specifically, it explores how national authorities and organizations initiate collaborations, use and produce policy knowledge and identify priorities and challenges. The…

Despite increased attention to racial disparities in health, wellbeing, and academic outcomes--especially for Black, Latine, and Native American children and children from low-income households--little progress has been made in identifying the root causes of those disparities and, more importantly, identifying equitable policies and strategies to…

For states to succeed in their efforts to improve reading instruction, they must ensure teachers are prepared to implement and sustain scientifically based reading instruction. The states most successful in leveraging policy to improve reading outcomes for students have taken a cohesive and comprehensive approach focused on improving teachers'…

Previous comparative research has revealed recent high and rising school exclusion rates in England and a contrasting picture of much lower and reducing rates in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. In this paper, we examine findings from new research into school exclusion policies across the four countries of the UK. This interrogates for the…