This article analyses the trajectory of national testing in Portugal between the early 1990s and 2015 in order to unveil continuities and changes in the regulatory processes of education in Portugal, particularly the emergence of results-based coordination and control methods. Drawing on legislative materials, it identifies and describes the…

This "Policy Brief" provides an overview of a new proposed accreditation policy framework in the United States that would focus on student outcomes to differentiate accreditor engagement with institutions. It is designed to address the core federal interest in ensuring that billions of annual student loan and taxpayer dollars are spent…

School choice is an education reform premised on a simple proposition: give families more choices, and they will find schools that best fit their children's needs. In short, school choice aims to create a marketplace of schooling options. School choice programs will succeed or fail based on how well they are able to create this marketplace and how…

Each year, the federal government provides billions of dollars to support low-income schools through the federal Title I program. Most of this money goes to Title I schools operating schoolwide programs. Schoolwide schools have authority under federal law to use Title I funds--and in some cases, other federal funds--flexibly to upgrade their…

President Obama is right to draw attention to the soaring cost of a college education in America. However, his proposed solution will not only fail to fix the problem but is also likely to compound it by blunting the competition that is needed to shake up the world of higher education. President Obama proposes to slow tuition growth by…

In August 2009, the U.S. Department of Education announced opportunities for states and local educational agencies to vie for $3.5 billion in Title I School Improvement Grants targeted at turning around or closing down chronically low-achieving schools. To qualify for a portion of these funds, school districts were required to implement one of…

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act contains numerous implications for school counselors, but the affects of NCLB on school counselors' roles and identities has not been thoroughly explored. Further, ways comprehensive school counseling programs and school counselors can thrive while striving to meet the goals of NCLB have been ignored in previous…

Special education as practiced today remains firmly anchored in the original logic of the Amendments to the Education of the Handicapped Act (PL 94-142). Subsequent reauthorizations of the statute have included language designed to increase access to the general curriculum by special needs students but have not addressed the underlying…

The purpose of this guide is to help chronically struggling schools restructure. "Restructuring" means major, rapid changes that affect how a school is led and how instruction is delivered. Restructuring is essential in achieving rapid improvements in student learning. The focus is on helping education leaders choose strategies that…

This paper examines two issues in telecommunications policy in which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has attempted to pursue policies that were distant from the policy desires of their supervising committees in Congress, and in which congressmen made use of various instruments of congressional influence: the FCC's attempt to…

A description of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act (CETA) precedes an examination of the CETA network. The three fold purpose of CETA is (1) to establish a flexible and decentralized system of federal, state, and local programs; (2) provide job-training and employment opportunities for the economically disadvantaged who are unemployed,…

Public debate about school choice is often polarized between those who favor and oppose total free markets in education. However, the serious intellectual work on choice focuses on more moderate alternatives that involve a mixture of public and private accountability. A regulated market model of educational accountability would mix government…

This article describes a model developed by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, Office of Children and Youth, Bureau of Child Development Programs for the evaluation of its child day care programs. The evaluation effort has two phases. The first phase, the Child Development Program Evaluation (CDPE) was designed to provide a…

A grounded theory that identifies the conditions that facilitate the effective implementation of federal mandates is presented. The theory was generated by utilizing the constant comparative method to examine institutional implementation of Title IX. The theory has major implications for individuals concerned with the effective implementation of…

This report describing family day care in Denmark is based on discussions with early childhood professionals in Denmark. Regulations for conducting family day care are set out in national guidelines which focus on: (1) supervision of children and providers by a trained child care professional who oversees not more than 50 children; (2) selection…