New York City's elite public specialized high schools have a long history of offering a rigorous college preparatory education to the City's most academically talented students. Though immensely popular and highly selective, their policy of admitting students on the basis of a single entrance exam has been heavily criticized. Many argue, for…

The world of higher education is a world of sorting, selecting, and ranking--on both sides of the market. Colleges select students to recruit and then to admit; students choose where to apply and which offer to accept. The sorting process that gets the most attention is in the higher reaches of the market, where it is not too much to say that…

Competitively allocated research funds, from both public and private sources, constitute an increasing share of university revenues. The article investigates empirically, using data on the Italian university system, whether structural and strategic features of universities--such as size, age and especially the importance that they assign to their…

This hermeneutic phenomenological study describes the lived experiences of high-achieving, low-income undergraduates and their transition into a college environment historically reserved for wealthy students. The results of this study indicate that these students are flourishing in full need-based financial aid programs as a result of their own…

Charter middle schools popular enough to hold admissions lotteries are, on average, no more successful than nearby traditional public schools in boosting student achievement, behavior, and attendance. However, charter schools vary widely; some are more effective and some are less effective than nearby traditional public schools. Those located in…

The past decade has seen the emergence, predominantly in Thailand and mainland China, of a form of educational institution that has had little scholarly attention or generic identification. This paper shows how the ad hoc and opportunistic franchising of elite English private schools, beginning with the hyper-capitalist exportation of the Dulwich…

Adding to the growing debate and evidence base on the effects of charter schools, this evaluation was conducted in 36 charter middle schools in 15 states. It compares the outcomes of 2,330 students who applied to these schools and were randomly assigned by lotteries to be admitted (lottery winners) or not admitted (lottery losers) to the schools.…

This paper examines the impact of attending different categories of selective institutions on students' college completion. Specifically, it explores differences in the impact that selectivity of an institution has by race and ethnicity. The analysis accounts for the impact of individual and institutional characteristics and corrects for omitted…

Strategic planning is an important tool, but the sole dependence on it across departments and campuses has resulted in the underutilization of equally important methods of analysis. The evolution of higher and postsecondary education necessitates a systemic industry analysis, as the combination of new providers and delivery mechanisms and changing…

This article reports a study that improves the authors' understanding of the potential impact of expanded community college transfer access to elite institutions by examining a variety of key questions using two national databases with complementary strengths. By estimating the number of low-income community college students currently transferring…

This paper considers the discursive production of violence in the context of educational markets. Drawing on a larger study of sexually violent incidents that occurred in an elite private boys' school in Sydney, Australia, in 2000, the paper examines disciplinary traditions and communicative practices surrounding these events. Insights from Michel…

In attempting to scale up restructuring efforts, the Memphis Restructuring Initiative used various strategies to acquaint schools with designs, such as inviting school leadership teams to presentations, giving schools time to research designs and narrow choices, asking schools to submit "letters of intent," and selecting 34 schools,…

Institutional averages of entering freshman scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT) were combined and edited to produce a single institutional measure of selectivity for 2,601 institutions. Correlations were made between scores and 19 institutional attributes. (Editor/LBH)

A practical guide to the process of selecting and appointing new college presidents is presented, based on a literature reivew, questionnaire responses, and institutional case studies. The following nine steps in the process are examined: (1) establishing the machinery of search and selection; (2) organizing the committee; (3) formulating the…

This report provides program data for those organizations that received funds from Learn and Serve America (LSA) for the 2004-2005 program year (spanning July 1, 2004 through June 30, 2005). The report illustrates where Learn and Serve funds are distributed, how many participants are being engaged in Learn and Serve-funded activities, and the…