In recent years, a credit recognition system has been developing in Chinese higher education institutions. Much research has been done on this development, but it has been concentrated on system building, barriers/issues and international practices. The relationship between credit recognition system reforms and democratisation of higher education…

Over the last 4 decades, the school effectiveness and school improvement research bases have gained prominence and recognition on the international stage. In both a theoretical and empirical sense, they have matured through a wide range of well-documented projects, interventions, and innovations across a range of countries, describing how efforts…

Over the last several hundred years, local and national educational systems have evolved from relatively simple systems to incredibly complex, interdependent, policy-laden structures, to which many question their value, effectiveness, and direction they are headed. System Dynamics is a field of analysis used to guide policy and system design in…

The implementation of quality assurance (QA) is one of the most challenging reform areas for Turkey due to the unique organization of its higher education system. This paper explores the development of QA systems in Turkish universities. Using a qualitative case study approach, the authors examine how Turkey accomplishes the goal of implementing…

The Chinese Government has conducted a series of top-down reforms of teacher education over the past several decades. The reforms have established a relatively stable teacher education system, regulated teacher education programmes and curricula, and provided opportunities for in-service teachers to be trained and to upgrade their educational…

Since the break up of the USSR, its former republics have seen the emergence and rapid expansion of an examinations industry that was, to all intents and purposes, unknown in Soviet times. New national assessment agencies have been established and been charged with, amongst other things, developing high-stakes exams to replace the diverse and…

This case study describes how Porterville Unified School District (PUSD), a rural school district in California's Central Valley, began to fulfill its vision to transform high school and career education through the implementation of Linked Learning. Linked Learning is a state-wide initiative for redesigning large comprehensive high schools into…

Data are most useful when they are transformed into actionable information that people are able to access, understand and use. Thanks to both state and federal leadership, political commitment and investment of financial resources, states have made tremendous progress in the building of statewide K-12 longitudinal data systems. However, to ensure…

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) believes that colleges and universities should play a central role in bringing the march to education reform to a successful conclusion. In this position paper, the Federation outlines a program to tackle the issues of standards, teaching, and accountability in education. For school reform to work, higher…

This paper describes the problematic aspects of redesigning the administration, organization, and funding of early childhood education in New Zealand. A committee for redesigning early childhood programs in the nation had specified the dimensions of the government's role in supporting early childhood education, and had proposed new arrangements…

This paper reports on some early findings from an assessment of the impact of mathematics and science reforms in Chicago, Illinois, Memphis, Tennessee, Miami, Florida, and El Paso, Texas. These reforms have been part of the National Science Foundation's Urban Systemic Reform program. Standards-based curriculum and instructional approaches with a…

Reviews the historical and political context of school reform, examining its problems and ambiguities as a policy and offering suggestions to minimize the risks of reform in urban schools. Concludes that state takeovers are detrimental because they do not address systemic problems in the affected school systems. Contains 51 references. (Author/SLD)

This review of selected literature examines the National Science Foundation's standards-based systemic reform theory in the context of research reported by science, mathematics, and urban education policy experts. This review is specifically concerned with viewing evidence of relationships among identified change variables that are associated with…

Many countries that have undergone expansion of access to public education still face significant disparities in school enrollment and attendance rates at sub-national levels, and fail to reach a high proportion of children who are outside of the government system. Completion and student learning have also continued to be system-wide challenges…

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN SUCH TECHNOLOGICAL AIDS AS EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION, VIDEOTAPE, COMPUTERIZED INSTRUCTION, MICROFILMS, AND TALKING TYPEWRITERS, HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO REVOLUTIONIZE THE AMERICAN SYSTEM OF EDUCATION, TO ALLEVIATE SOCIOECONOMIC ILLS, AND TO ELIMINATE ADULT ILLITERACY. HOWEVER, LONG-RANGE BENEFITS WILL DEPEND GREATLY ON BASIC AND…