This paper examines "Fresh Start," a New Labour flagship initiative to raise education "standards" in a radical and innovative way. Drawing on a qualitative study of a comprehensive school in England, I argue that the initiative added to the problems faced by the "failing school" and promoted rather traditional ways…

Policy-makers and institutional administrators have long struggled with the question of college and university student tuition fees. In many ways this struggle may be characterized as a negotiation between two distinct policy goals: providing revenue to adequately finance higher education and ensuring student accessibility to higher education. The…

This paper examines the extent of and the mechanisms behind the penalty to motherhood in six European countries. Each country provides different levels of support for maternal employment allowing us to determine institutional effects on labour market outcome. While mothers tend to earn less than non-mothers, the penalty to motherhood is…

This paper is concerned with the influence of student loans on the accessibility of disadvantaged groups to higher education. Three key conditions are necessary for success, but are often neglected. These are: that effective eligibility and screening criteria are in place and that pro-active targeting measures are employed to reach out to the most…

"Alternative teacher certification program" (ATCP) is widely used as a term for a variety of programs designed to train and credential teachers in expedited fashion. In practice, however, ATCPs consist of a loose confederation of programs and practices ranging from "emergency certification to very sophisticated and well-designed…

This article analyses changes that have occurred in the elementary education system in Mexico since 1992 when an administrative de-concentration process took place. This process was accompanied by legal modifications that created opportunities for social participation in public elementary schools affairs. As a result, some school communities in…

To gain a clear sense of teacher educators at work, we need to look closely at the context in which they practice. Any attempt to address the questions of what works and the nature of evidence must be situated in the macro-political context that constrains the work of teacher educators struggling for legitimacy and identity within both the…

Researchers have paid scant attention to the opportunities and the barriers associated with across-state study of college-transition policies, although the American states comprise a social system especially well suited for comparative analysis. What sorts of questions should researchers ask about college-transition policies and programs? How…

This paper explores the making of the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) in South Africa, and asks how a policy that was intended to unite education and training, and build new forms of equality, failed to become hegemonic as the new state established itself. In so doing, it engages, and argues for, theoretical tools that help keep "the…

In recent years, international comparisons have become a powerful lever for change in educational policies. Quality assurance and evaluation (QAE) in many forms is being incorporated in the steering and management of schools. However, the Danish use of QAE is a dynamic result of ongoing tensions and struggles both around and within QAE…

The equity effects of public subsidization of private schools in Cote d'Ivoire are analyzed. The subsidy per student in private (and public) schools increases as one goes to higher household per capita expenditure groups. Students from families in the highest expenditure quartile receive twice the subsidy received by students from families in the…

The Internet plays a critical role in informing individuals about society, politics, business, and the environment. So much so that it has been said that the digital divide makes the segment of society on the ''right side'' of the divide (the digitally endowed group) better off and that on the ''wrong side'' (the digitally challenged group) worse…

This article considers what the learning and skills system would look like if, in line with the rhetoric of ministers, teaching and learning really were made the first priority of policy. The author draws out some of the implications for teachers and managers, and reflects on how the relationship between tutors and learners can be enhanced. He…

School districts, individual schools, and education policies all contribute to student achievement. But it can be argued that the most important contributing factor is the quality of the teacher in the classroom. Evaluating teacher quality is complicated, yet it has become even more important with the testing and assessment focus of No Child Left…

The attempt of writing center consultants to discourage faculty from requiring classes to visit the writing center led to research that calls this longstanding practice into question. In the early days of the proliferation of writing centers, faculty were advised not to require either individual students or entire classes to go to the writing…