This paper will investigate how specific "narratives on the inclusion of minority language students" (MLSs) are constructed in Norwegian and Italian educational policy documents. We will employ the Narrative Policy Framework's (NPF) analytical categories with an interpretative narrative approach to reconstruct the two national policy…

Background: While current investments in school improvement occur in the context of the worldwide economic downturn, in the South African context, there is in addition widespread disparity in education provision and attainment related to pre-democracy race-based patterns. Despite the education sector receiving the largest national annual budget…

Critically examines the suggestion that unemployment could be reduced by creating jobs in nonprofit organizations, observes trends in the sector's employment and resources, and discusses the conditions in which nonprofit organizations provide social services more efficiently that government and for-profit enterprises. Concludes that this is not a…

Suggests four criteria (efficiency, return on investment, incentives, and equity) for evaluating and comparing public programs for poor children, and provides an overview of information available on eight large federal programs using these criteria. Positive effects of some programs are noted, and policy recommendations the evidence supports are…

Research on university marketing structures suggests environments without unique market segments result in circular, multi-layered structures; marketing autonomy is directly related to resource control; communication and cooperation among organizational layers is inversely related to resource control; number of autonomous organizational layers is…

This review analyzes data-based studies dealing with self-management procedures (self-monitoring, self-evaluation, self-reinforcement, and self-instruction) used by individuals with mental retardation in public school settings. Although support is found for the positive effects of self-management, questions regarding efficient implementation of…

This article discusses how the concept of efficiency in special education services is translated into specific practices. A paradigm is presented that quantifies a measure of student need, ties school allocations to student needs, tracks actual expenditures on special education, and links those expenditures to quantifiable measures of student…

This paper focuses on how teachers and administrators share a commitment towards the general principle of accountability in regard to efficiency in educational programs. The notion of efficiency is shown to have limited application to complex multidimensional processes, including those of classroom language learning and of language program…

This policy research summary outlines the paradigms and processes used in recent research and evaluation studies conducted on supported employment and rehabilitation programs in Minnesota. First, the paper reviews evaluation strategies and models for assessing the individual and societal efficacy of supported employment. It identifies key…

Discusses the improvement of educational programs in developing countries. Highlights include systems analysis in education; education and national resources; instructional systems design (ISD) and improved efficiency; programed learning and teaching; and a development project to improve the efficiency of Korean elementary schools. (33 references)…

Within the literature on special education administration in rural areas three topics emerge: difficulties associated with bringing special education programs to rural areas; need for research pertaining to special education in rural areas; and a concern with cooperative arrangements as a means of providing special education programs in rural…

This paper examines the trend toward demanding increased accountability and efficiency by institutions of higher education in the United States and Europe and its implications for the relationship between government and the college or university. It notes that such factors as limited state resources, rising educational costs, and the growing…

A search of the literature was made on the effectiveness of recruitment and selection procedures for identifying and retaining administrators and school staff who are effective in managing student conflict and alienation. A classification scheme devised to fit approaches to school discipline within a theoretical framework includes (1) the…

Recent Australian research provides a solid body of evidence that training investments can yield very high levels of returns for firms across a range of sectors. It highlights these important factors about returns on investment (ROI): ROI come in many forms; immediate ROI are highest when training is highly focused; measuring ROI is not always…

Health care is demanding increasing resources and attention in numbers of health care workers, in levels of skills required, in time spent in training, and in dollars expended. A greater spectrum of skills is required to cope with increasing health care demands, yet trends toward specialization and fracturing of responsibilities assigned to health…