The Bush administration has called off internal deliberations over a bailout plan for student-loan companies after concluding it did not have the authority to act on its own. Instead, it endorsed a Congressional proposal that would allow the education secretary to purchase loans from private lenders. The decision leaves Congress facing a ticking…

This paper is based on one prepared for South Australia's Training and Skills Commission. It comes at a time of strong interest in the quality and professionalism of the vocational education and training (VET) workforce. This interest is underpinned by research into what constitutes quality teaching, as well as initiatives such as the strategic…

Council for American Private Education (CAPE) is a coalition of national associations serving private schools K-12. "Outlook" is published monthly by CAPE. This issue contains the following articles: (1) Obama Budget Proposes Dramatic Changes for ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act); (2) Push Continues for DC Voucher Program;…

Lawmakers are hailing a long-awaited measure to renew the federal Head Start preschool program as an example of the kind of legislation that can emerge from bipartisan consensus and compromise. The bill, approved overwhelmingly by both the House and the Senate on Nov. 14, seeks to address concerns about mismanagement in some local Head Start…

In a climate of increased accountability, standardization, federal control, and politicization of education research and scholarship, this article briefly reviews various positions outlined by qualitative researchers about quality in qualitative inquiry, showing how these are implicated in the acquisition, conceptualization, and use of qualitative…

In September 2007, Congress voted to cut subsidies to lenders in the federal guaranteed-student-loan program and use much of the savings to increase student aid. Congress also passed other significant provisions, including modified repayment periods and loan forgiveness for certain students. Such legislation came on the heels of New York Attorney…

A group of 32 attorneys general from across the United States urged Congress last week to enact new restrictions on the student-loan industry, saying their investigations continue to reveal "new levels of corruption and deception" that require a rapid response from lawmakers. The attorneys general, led by Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, are trying to…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB 2001) has the faculties of every public and charter school scrambling to drive test scores of seven identified groups of children (African-American children, Anglo-White children, children with disabilities, Hispanic children, children of poverty, children with English language limitations, and Native-American…

For education administrators, campus fires are not only a distressing loss, but also a stark reminder that a campus faces risks that require special vigilance. In many ways, campuses resemble small communities, with areas for living, working and relaxing. A residence hall fire may raise the specter of careless youth, often with the complication of…

The content standards reform movement and the accountability movement that have occurred over the past 10 to 20 years have received much attention among educational professionals and the general public. The federal government legislated accountability measures with the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2000. The Pennsylvania…

School business officials kept a close watch on the financial markets this week--and on district investment portfolios and teacher-retirement funds--as stock prices gyrated and once-sound institutions got government bailouts or crumbled into bankruptcy. While financial observers said it was too soon to predict how Wall Street's upheaval might…

Exposure to certain bloodborne pathogens can prematurely end a person's life. Healthcare workers (HCWs), especially those who are members of surgical teams, are at increased risk of exposure to these pathogens. The proper use of personal protective equipment (PPE) during operative/invasive procedures reduces that risk. Despite this, some HCWs fail…

To address some of the financial challenges facing low-income students, federal policymakers enacted a provision in the 2008 Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) that makes financial literacy a required service of all TRIO programs (or, in the case of McNair, simply makes permissible). Effective August 2008, these programs started offering…

This article explores the role of the Korean government in expanding private higher education over time and attempts to examine the impact of such expansion on access to and equity in higher education. The enrolment rate in Korean higher education has increased to over 80% within the past 60 years. This can be attributed to two factors: the rapid…

Federal regulations allow up to 2% of the student population of a state to achieve proficiency for adequate yearly progress by taking an alternate assessment based on modified academic achievement standards (AA-MAS). Such tests are likely to be easier, but as long as a test is considered a valid measure of grade level content, it is allowable as…