The challenges of securing educational change and transformation, at scale, remain considerable. While sustained progress has been made in some education systems (Fullan, 2009; Hargreaves & Shirley, 2009) generally, it remains the case that the pathway to large-scale, system improvement is far from easy or straightforward. While large-scale…

Systems archetypes are patterns of structure found in systems that are helpful in understanding some of the dynamics within them. The intent of this study was to examine educational attainment data using the success-to-the-successful archetype as a model to see if it helps to explain the inequality observed in the data. Data covering 1990 to 2009…

From their very beginnings, the community colleges have demonstrated a commitment to their founding principles of access, affordability, and quality. However, following February 2009, when President Obama set forth the agenda for U.S. postsecondary education to have the highest proportion of college graduates in the world by 2020, priority shifted…

This article focuses on analysing the effect of educational differentiation policies of OECD educational systems on socioeconomically disadvantaged students, based on data from PISA 2009. The analysis is conducted on the basis of a definition of two subgroups of disadvantaged students: those that achieve high scores, and those obtaining scores…

Students from underrepresented groups who seek to become the first in their family to attend college confront economically and racially stratified education systems. This article reports findings from an evaluation of First Graduate, an organization that offers college advising, mentoring, tutoring, and case management to first-generation students…

USING A CONCEPTUAL MODEL DRAWN FROM SYSTEMS-ORIENTED THINKING AND RESEARCH IN DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY, A LIMITED NUMBER OF SCHOOL UNDERACHIEVEMENT PROBLEMS WERE ANALYZED. SCHOOL UNDERACHIEVERS ARE VIEWED AS BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS TRANSACTING WITH A VARIETY OF SOCIAL SYSTEMS. THEREFORE, THE FOCUS IS ON FINDING PROBLEM-PRODUCING ELEMENTS IN THE TOTAL…

This report explores the need for cost-benefit analysis in non-traditional education for the disadvantaged and presents practical suggestions and steps needed to carry out an effective analysis, based upon the experiences in the Community College of Vermont. Steps in such an anslysis include: (1) understand the informational needs of the various…

Sterling M. McMurrin, Chairman of the Commission on Instructional Technology, introduces this volume with a description of the Commission's work to date and a discussion of the relationship of technology to education. The following 91 papers comprise the remainder of the state-of-the-art papers submitted as working papers to the Commission. For…

A study identified strategies used in selected rural states for evaluating the effectiveness of vocational programs and services for handicapped and disadvantaged students. During the study, the researcher examined the documents used by 13 rural states to assess their vocational programs for handicapped and disadvantaged individuals. This…