Small specialist higher education institutions often face challenges when negotiating with larger partners. In 1988, John Dawkins, Australia's federal Minister for Education, introduced sweeping reforms to create a Unified National System of higher education. Dawkins' criteria for funding necessitated mergers for many smaller providers. The…

There is a gap in understanding between legislators, governors, and other leaders and those who actually manage the distance learning operations on the nation's campuses. Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education's (WICHE) Cooperative Study of Educational Technologies (WCET) took a systematic approach to gauging the opinions of distance…

New York State's system of public elementary and secondary schools is in steep decline, but it is salvageable. The roots of its problems pre-date the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020, but the system's response to that challenge accelerated discontent with the schools and harmed students. The damage of those years will not be undone if…

Rural depopulation, decreasing numbers of children, and general centralization, combined with high expectations for education, are factors that challenge rural communities and school structures in both Latvia and Norway. The aim of this article is to compare the role of the municipality and other levels of governance in making decisions on school…

Educational privatisation has received increasing scholarly attention in recent decades. In much of this work, educational privatisation is viewed as the outcomes of certain government policies or as the result of the influences of education businesses in school systems. This article presents a portrait of an educational entrepreneur in Cambodia…

This specific case of Chulalongkorn University (CU), Thailand, is useful to readers who are interested in comparative aspect of the experiences of research universities in the South East Asian context. This paper aims to provide a description of the environments, changes, and university stakeholders' perceptions in terms of governance arrangements…

The U.S. spends twice as much as the average industrialized country on higher education, but continues to slide relative to other nations in the percentage of young adults with an associate degree or higher. Despite recent reductions in state aid to higher education, state taxpayers continue to be the largest single source of unrestricted funds…

This article examines the education policy environment in Tennessee that preceded a comprehensive reform bill enacted to enhance the state's Race to the Top application. Through interviews with key policymakers in Tennessee, I describe how recent reform efforts undertaken at the state level positioned Tennessee as a strong contender for the Race…

This qualitative case study examined a single phenomenon that of a decade of public school reform efforts via legislated takeover in an urban poor minority school district, 1999-2009. The Harrisburg School District (HSD) is situated within the Capitol City of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and educates one of the highest rates of poverty and…

What began as a swashbuckling move by the mayor of Newark, New Jersey, the state's governor, and a newly minted billionaire to reshape the beleaguered Newark school system has turned into a tangle of blowback and counterpunches as skeptics contend the plan would violate state law. At issue is the power-sharing arrangement proposed by the three…

A basic premise of charter school reform in public education is offering more autonomy in the use of funds and the design of curriculum in exchange for greater accountability in academic and financial outcomes. This premise poses a significant policy challenge for state policymakers to establish an appropriate level of regulation; charter schools…

"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) "Now What?": New Fordham Institute Report Explores Next Steps After Common Core Adoption, Offers Model to…

Today, state education agencies (SEAs) and their leaders face unprecedented demands. What was once a low-profile job of managing federal aid, providing curricular guidance, and ensuring compliance with various legal obligations is now a far more visible and politically fraught task. The new roles required of state education agencies due to the No…

Administrator perspectives regarding current and potential increased participation in post-secondary educational opportunities by Michigan high school students were explored in this descriptive quantitative study. Targeted concerns included current institutional levels of involvement, personal knowledge concerning program rules and regulations,…

With decreasing enrollment, decreasing funding for public school education, changes in family and societal needs, and the mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act, policymakers and school leaders are wrestling with reforms to the school calendar and instructional time spent in the classroom, with the goal of increasing student achievement.…