In the last four years McKinsey and Company have produced two highly influential reports on how to improve school systems. The first McKinsey report "How the world's best-performing school systems come out on top" has since its publication in 2007 been used to justify change in educational policy and practice in England and many other…

There is little doubt as to the importance of creativity for both economic and social progress and of the need for educational systems to enhance and nurture it. However, are educational systems promoting creativity? The general feeling is that it is, in fact, being "killed" in schools. The educational systems were designed for a…

Education names and classifies individuals. This result seems unavoidable. For example, some students will graduate, and some will not. Those who graduate will be "graduates"; those who do not graduate will be labeled otherwise. The only way to avoid such labeling is to fail to make distinctions of any kind. Yet education is rife with…

Can caring and standardized testing coincide? Marcuse criticized the misuse of science because it also legitimizes social and economic hierarchy. By the same token, scholars develop standardized testing, claiming these tests are scientific and can measure objectively individuals' learning and intelligence capabilities. However, if inclusive caring…

The current interest in governmental assessment and accountability practices appears to result from:(1) an emerging view of higher education as an "industry"; (2) concerns about efficient resource allocation; (3) a lack of trust ade between government institutional officials; (4) a desire to reduce uncertainty in government/higher education…