This article deals with the politics of aid partnerships in the education sector of Benin following an anthropological policy research approach based on empirical data. I present local debates on primary education and the New Study Programmes, the latest education reform introduced nationwide in 1999. The different perceptions of the reform…

Value-added measures can be used to allocate funding to schools, to identify those institutions in need of special attention and to underpin government guidance on targets. In England, there has been a tendency to include in these measures an ever-greater number of contextualising variables and to develop ever-more complex models that encourage…

In this article, the author talks about an increasing movement that generates support for the Dream Act, the federal proposal which would allow some undocumented students to begin the path towards permanent residency. Beginning in Summer 2009, when more than 500 converged in DC for a national Dream Act graduation ceremony, students and their…

Within the context of the school finance literature, the concepts of equity and adequacy raise a number of complex definitional and pragmatic issues. The purpose of this paper is to clarify those issues and to use those concepts to evaluate the recent policy proposal called Weighted Student Funding (WSF). Though WSF contains some equity-enhancing…

This report examines funding disparities between two seemingly similar schools in Virginia and North Carolina. It finds that the federal, state, and local policies designed to distribute education funds systematically provide more money to higher-income students and wealthier schools. (Contains 5 figures.) [This report was also produced by the…

A large literature finds that resources are not significant determinants of student performance. These results may arise because resources really do not matter in public education or because local school districts allocate additional resources to poorer performing schools. To shed light on this issue, a unique data set for the Metropolitan…

"National CrossTalk" is a publication of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. The National Center promotes public policies that enhance opportunities for quality education and training beyond high school. The primary purpose of "National CrossTalk" is to stimulate informed discussion and debate of higher…

"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) Congress Delays Education Funding Decisions: Short-Term Measure Funds Government Into March, Ensures Greater Role for…

This book seeks to explore thematic and pragmatic applications of financing the community college to help facilitate educational reform, to assist efforts related to internationalization, and to create systemic support systems to maintain the mission. It includes chapters on a wide variety of finance related topics, and specific case studies of…

To boost the social and economic outlook of the country, Turkey has recently initiated educational reform at all levels and especially higher education, including organizational restructuring and expansion for increased accessibility. The swift increase in the number and size of universities has resulted in a challenge to find trained faculty. One…

Maine is blessed with universities that have records of significant achievement. The seven campuses of the University of Maine System (UMS) together educated over 23,000 students (full-time equivalent) during the past year. But for good reason, in recent years public confidence in higher education throughout the nation has fallen. Half of the…

This report examines Idaho's undergraduate-degree-granting colleges and universities. The authors focus on what students are learning (the curriculum), whether the marketplace of ideas is vibrant (intellectual diversity), how the universities are run (governance), and what a college education costs (affordability). In each case, the authors…

In recent years, students and parents have seen tuition costs at colleges and universities rise, to the extent that many low-income families may feel a college education for their child is out of their financial reach. However, this sky-high tuition is often partially, or even largely, subsidized by various forms of financial aid. For families to…

American higher education is in transition and if there ever was a "golden age" for faculty, it probably is behind us. The best historical data on the composition of faculty is collected annually by the American Mathematical Society. Between 1967 and 2009, the share of full-time faculty with PhDs remained constant at about 90 percent at…

Almost 12 million students, more than half of the nation's undergraduates, are currently enrolled at community colleges. The commitment of these institutions to open access admission attracts a significantly underprepared population. Consequently, less than 50% of first time freshman students earn a degree or transfer to a 4-year institution…