This article reports on the experiences of the Kimberley Thusanang Project (KTP). It proposes that the project's use of a database system as a management tool represents a significant development in the design of effective education projects in South Africa. The article describes how this system assists project management in overcoming two key…

Arguing that the politicisation of decentralisation appreciably reduces educational quality and efficient resource allocation and negatively affects matters of equity in and delivery of education, the present study provides a critique of decentralisation and privatisation in education in Africa with special reference to Nigeria. On the basis of…

Recent federal initiatives and efforts within education and psychology professional organizations have contributed to an increased focus on scientifically based practices in education. Although interventions are available to educators, there is a need to enhance systems capacity through identification, selection, and implementation of appropriate…

Mergers have been a frequent phenomenon in higher education in the last quarter century. The conventional wisdom is that mergers are undertaken mainly for economic reasons, either to expand markets or to reduce costs. About four out of five college or university mergers survive. In the for-profit sector the comparable rate is closer to two out of…

Effective professional development requires that the district take charge to develop a comprehensive strategy. Districts must be able to describe the strategy and organize to meet their goals. A balanced strategy includes compensation, planning time, teachers' job structure and responsibilities, and professional learning opportunities. Districts…

Background: In encouraging good health for people with intellectual disabilities, health promotion serves as an effective intervention. However, little is known about health promotion strategies for this sector of the population. The objectives of this study were to describe the current profile of health promotion planning among institutions…

Soft constraints hypothesis (SCH) is a rational analysis approach that holds that the mixture of perceptual-motor and cognitive resources allocated for interactive behavior is adjusted based on temporal cost-benefit tradeoffs. Alternative approaches maintain that cognitive resources are in some sense protected or conserved in that greater amounts…

Top state and local leaders in Maryland announced a plan last February to lend Baltimore $42 million to help the city's financially troubled school system. The money was used by Baltimore school leaders to address what they called a cash-flow emergency for that school year. Money helped pay employees' salaries for the rest of that year, and helped…

The Secretary of Education (Secretary) establishes requirements, definitions, and approval criteria for the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (Stabilization or SFSF) program. The Secretary may use one or more of these requirements, definitions, and approval criteria in awarding funds under this program in fiscal year (FY) 2010. These requirements,…

This generation of young people is on track to be less-educated than their parents--for the first time in American history. This, at the same time the world and workplace are changing dramatically and rapidly--when students, more than ever, need high levels of skill in order to compete. Advance Illinois has developed this report "We Can Do…

School finance adequacy litigation has become a widely-used means in the efforts to improve educational outcomes for children. This form of litigation has been attempted in nearly every state over the past two decades. Despite its prevalence, its effectiveness remains questionable due to a lack of study relating finance litigation to student…

The goal of this study is to apply a conventional education cost-function approach for estimating the sensitivity of cost models and predicted education costs to the inclusion of school district level racial composition variables and further to test whether race neutral alternatives sufficiently capture the additional costs associated with school…

A cost-effectiveness analysis was conducted of Gordon, Kane, and Staiger's (2006) proposal to raise student achievement by identifying and replacing the bottom quartile of novice teachers, using value-added assessment of teacher performance. The cost effectiveness of this proposal was compared to the cost effectiveness of voucher programs, charter…

Internal Audit Services conducted an Early Implementation Review of the Understanding the Early Years (UEY) Initiative in 2006-07. This review is intended to provide assurance to senior management that program delivery has been established appropriately in order to meet its objectives and highlight any areas that require focused management…

"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) Senate Begins Debate on Education Spending Bill: White House Threatens Presidential Veto; (2) NCLB Timetable in…