This article presents a conceptual framework derived from institutional theory in sociology that offers two competing policy contexts in which charter schools operate--a bureaucratic frame versus a decentralized frame. An analysis of evolving charter school types based on three underlying theories of action is considered. As charter school leaders…

Since the 2001-02 school year, the accountability provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) have shaped much of the work of public school teachers and administrators in the United States. NCLB explicitly prohibits schools from excluding students with disabilities from the accountability system and requires not only participation of…

This article, which draws heavily on the Sutherland Inquiry report into the delivery of National Curriculum testing in 2008, outlines important aspects of the failure that year to report test-scores on time, considers the extent to which ministers might have been held more accountable and reviews the state of the long struggle to replace the…

This article examines the impact of the concept of social capital on the citizenship education initiative in England through its influence on the normative content of the policy, as embodied in the report of the Advisory Group on Citizenship (AGC)--which was one of the immediate causes of the inclusion of citizenship in the National Curriculum in…

Neoliberal precepts of the governance of academic science-deregulation; reification of markets; emphasis on competitive allocation processes have been conflated with those of performance management--if you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it--into a single analytical and consequent single programmatic worldview. As applied to the United…

The article starts by illustrating how children's right to participation comes to the fore in legal documents regulating the field of early childhood education in Norway. Issues regarding the views of children, understanding of democracy and of play, which influence how this right is realised in early childhood practice, are taken as a point of…

The Bologna Process is almost at its end and European policy-makers currently reflect on appropriate objectives and policies for the next decade. Given that the Bologna Process is generally seen as an example of unprecedented change in European higher education and that the major overarching objective of the Process was to increase the…

Using the case of a secondary English department, this article demonstrates how historical barriers to effectively educating diverse students have been reinforced by the current educational climate of curriculum standardization and high stakes accountability. Data derive from in-depth interviews of English teachers and analysis of…

Selective archiving of Web sites in Australia has been under way since 1996. This approach has seen carefully selected sites preserved after site owners granted permission. The labor-intensive nature of this process means only a small number of sites can ever be acquired in this manner. An alternate approach is an automated…

Proponents of school choice policies assume that such policies will create competition between schools for nearby students. This paper discusses the differences between choice and competition in education and why the existence of choice does not necessarily translate to competition. Vouchers and charter schools have been the twin pillars of school…

This article provides a characterization of the internationalization of "global" European universities and discusses the role of the State in promoting greater internationalization and competitiveness levels of prominent national universities. The analysis supports previous arguments stating that global ranking of universities is…

Almost 30,000 schools in the United States failed to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act in the 2007-2008 school year. For states with comparable data for the 2006-2007 school year, the number of such schools increased by 28%. Half those schools missed their achievement goals for two or more years, putting…

We employ Data Envelopment Analysis to compute the technical efficiency of Italian and English higher education institutions. Our results show that, in relation to the country-specific frontier, institutions in both countries are typically very efficient. However, institutions in England are more efficient than those in Italy when we compare…

Accreditation under the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) has contributed to the professional decline of social work. The lack of scholarship of the Board of Directors of CSWE compromises its decision making. The quality of the professional literature suffers from the weak scholarship of editors and referees. The caliber of deans and…

Federal law mandates that all teachers, including special educators, must be highly qualified by meeting standards for licensure in the academic content areas they teach. This provision has an impact on prospective and practicing teachers, on schools and school systems, and on colleges and universities, especially those in rural areas. This study…