Over the past years, a large body of scholarly literature has developed to address gender inequity in the developed world, and suggestions for reducing the gender gap are well documented in the literature. However, still lacking in research is why there is gender inequity in mathematics and science education in African schools. Girls are not…

The education policies of governments have become increasingly directed towards economic ends, including the development of workforce skills. UK governments have been particularly committed to such policies and have adopted some quite distinctive tools, relying heavily on targets and emphasizing certificated rather than uncertificated learning.…

This third edition of the "ES Review" brings together, in one setting, some of the best work from 2008-09. It features: (1) K-12 Accountability (Measuring Skills for the 21st Century (Elena Silva); Beyond the Bubble: Technology and the Future of Student Assessment (Bill Tucker); Testing the Limits (Bill Tucker); Changing the Game: The…

The work of the Arizona Commission for Postsecondary Education (ACPE) is guided by a strategic plan. The purpose of the plan is to provide focus for the activity of this small agency and its five staff members in order to increase productivity and impact in the areas of its statutory authority. The mission and goals were accepted by Commissioners…

This report describes the importance of redesigned high schools to engage full high school communities in the deliberate rethinking of virtually everything, ranging from how time is used, to how adults are deployed, even to the "places"where learning occurs. Essentially, redesigned high schools: (1) have high expectations for all…

This study investigated whether adult literacy and numeracy courses produced social capital outcomes, which are changes in students' connections with networks of people. Interviews seeking information about participation in adult literacy and numeracy courses were conducted with 57 students and 18 teachers in four courses, one each in the Northern…

In Chinese societies, moral education has always been considered the most essential component of education because the nurturing of moral persons is the prime function of schooling. The implementation of moral education has relied on the inculcation of values that reflect moral ideals. The emergence of the Information Age, with a plethora of…

Australian public policy adopted the concept of lifelong learning in the 1980s and harnessed it to human capital theory to articulate a new policy emphasis on "up-skilling" the Australian labour force. This paper addresses the question of how this conception of lifelong learning has fared in practice as Australian Commonwealth government…

The Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) is a regional economic development agency representing a unique partnership of federal, state, and local governments. Established by an act of Congress in 1965, the Commission is composed of the governors of the 13 Appalachian states and a federal co-chairperson. Grassroots participation is provided by…

This paper reviews the evolution of the different theories concerning education as a factor of development. It is important to see exactly how the struggle against scarcity and the production of material goods can be made more effective by allocating financial and human resources to the production and transmission of knowledge. The growth theory…

Pathways from Poverty is a public policy education and research initiative organized by the Rural Sociological Society's Task Force on Persistent Rural Poverty and the four regional rural development centers. This publication focuses on project efforts in the Northeast and includes three sections. The first section describes the Pathways from…

Human capital is one of the central strategic factors in the location of production facilities in Germany. It can be formed and maintained only by qualified basic education, vocational training, and further training. The best possible and continuously updated qualifications are necessary and advantageous for the individual as well. Unskilled…

This study explores the proposition that, in less-developed rural areas, employers who provide greater employment opportunities for better educated persons might help communities break out of the vicious spiral caused by poverty-creating inefficiency in the use of public resources. Three hypothesis are advanced: (1) that, if good and extensive…

A comparison is made of some of the notable features of the Japanese and U.S. labor markets. In Japan, as compared to the United States, for example, levels of employment tenure are higher, employer-employee attachment stronger, earnings-tenure profiles more steeply sloped, layoffs and dismissals much less frequent, and joint consultation and…

There is widespread discussion in OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries regarding the need to improve educational quality. Education is not an assembly-line process of mechanically increasing inputs and raising productivity. Educational quality concerns raise fundamental questions about societal aims, the nature of…