"Education, Equity, and the States" examines how variations in state governance determine how federal initiatives are implemented and makes recommendations for approaching reform from this perspective. The book defines the key ways in which state policy environments differ from one another, illustrates how those differences matter, and…

Frederick M. Hess and Michael Q. McShane have gathered a diverse group of scholars to examine the shifting federal role in education across the presidential administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. While the administrations were vastly different, one thing remained constant: an ongoing and significant expansion of the federal role in…

In "The Fight for America's Schools", Barbara Ferman brings together a diverse group of contributors to investigate how parents, communities, teachers, unions, and students are mobilizing to oppose market-based reforms in education. Drawing on a series of rich case studies, the book illustrates how disparate groups can forge new…

In October 2005, the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine released a policy report that served as a call to action. The report, "Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future" observed that "the scientific and technological building blocks…

Education finance has emerged as one of the most pressing public policy issues of the new century. Americans spend more than $500 billion a year on elementary and secondary education, yet neither policy-makers nor practitioners seems to know how to align these resources with student learning goals. In fact, spending increases have outstripped…

What turns a good school into a great school? With today's schools under enormous pressure to make adequate yearly progress (AYP), the answers are more important than ever--and this essential guidebook gives K-12 administrators and educators scores of proven, concrete strategies to help their school succeed. Authors Martin Ratcliffe and Melissa…

This study subdivides chronologically into two portions. The first deals with the conception of the reform and the circumstances leading up to the publication of the scope of the reform, the institutional infrastructure, and the processes of innovation. These subtopics correspond to the division into objectives, means, and processes. The scope of…

This book examines the process of change in American public education, focusing in particular on various experiments in performance contracting that were conducted between 1969 and 1973. Chapter 1 briefly reviews the process of change in education and describes the performance contracting concept and the ways its advocates expected it to overcome…

"Childhood Programs and Practices in the First Decade of Life" presents research findings on the effects of early childhood programs and practices in the first decade of life and their implications for policy development and reform. Leading scholars in the multidisciplinary field of human development and in early childhood learning…

This book gives a brief history of education in Romania over the last decade. The text is divided into two parts. Part 1 provides a background report, whereas part 2 presents the results of an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development review team's analysis of recent trends and reform initiatives. The first section describes the…

What happens when an innovative project is implemented in a school is the focus of this book. An examination of the change process by a variety of authors divides the book into three main sections. Part 1 reports the results of examination of the change process in recent times. Part 2 extends the book's focus to experiences with large-scale,…

During the past two decades federal, state, and local school leaders have attempted to institute major changes in educational programs and organizational arrangements. Recent assessment studies reveal that the great majority of change efforts did not meet intended objectives. As a result, policy formulators have developed serious reservations…

This book reports on a project that addressed the question of what the federal government's role in postsecondary education ought to be. An executive summary concludes that federal policy should have three major objectives: fostering high-quality training, improving existing federal programs, and encouraging systemic reform. Chapter 1 is an…

Conducted in Europe during the summer of 1971, the study attempts to show how three nations--Denmark, France, and West Germany--have taken steps to deal with the problems of economic growth in an advanced industrialized society by reconceptualizing the role of adult education. In the first four chapters the components of a new continuing education…

First published in 1974, this book was the first full-length study of federal Indian education policy. This revised edition brings the material up to date with the addition of analysis and interpretation of trends and policies that shaped Indian education in the 1980s and 1990s. Chapters are arranged chronologically and cover specific eras such as…