Although the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 dismisses the role of pedagogy in teacher education, teacher educators see the need for a deeper pedagogy that includes the teaching of thinking and socioemotional processes, which are missing in traditional teacher preparation programs. This article outlines criticisms of teacher education found in…

"Excellence" has been a prevalent term in New Labour rhetoric on education, most notably in the stated goal of "excellence for all" in education. Despite that, the meaning of the term has remained imprecise, and the implications of universal excellence unclear. In this paper, three distinct definitions of excellence are…

Substantial policy and political changes have resulted from a 2001 state takeover of the Philadelphia School District and the subsequent hiring of Paul Vallas as the district's new CEO. Using the lens of urban regime analysis, which emphasizes the importance of public and private actors in forming a governing coalition, this article analyzes the…

"Childhood Programs and Practices in the First Decade of Life" presents research findings on the effects of early childhood programs and practices in the first decade of life and their implications for policy development and reform. Leading scholars in the multidisciplinary field of human development and in early childhood learning…

Is the United States getting it wrong when it comes to educating tomorrow's innovators in critical fields? It has been known for years that the only way to compete globally in information technology, engineering, nanotechnology, robotics and other fields is to give students the best educational opportunities possible. But do individuals have a…

In U.S. K-12 public education, incentive pay for educators remains firmly fixed as a high-interest policy topic and has recently become a popular reform initiative in many school systems. The Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF), created in 2006 by the U.S. Department of Education, is at the forefront of this policy movement and has provided hundreds of…

This book is the personal account of William Bennett who formerly served in the U.S. government as the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Secretary of Education, and Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The volume suggests what is right and what is wrong with education in the United States; discusses the…

Reflecting a variety of intellectual and disciplinary orientations, this volume examines major changes in educational development and reform and considers how such changes have been implemented in the past. The material addresses questions of governance, equity and multiculturalism, curriculum standards, school choice. The book has four parts.…

This report focuses on the shifting landscape of state roles in higher education and the public policy connections to quality undergraduate programs. The State Policy and College Learning project was initiated to generate state policies that would have a constructive impact on the efforts of colleges and universities to improve undergraduate…

This book details a study of policy from the perspective of Head Start staff and is written from the perspective of how staff adapted and interpreted program policies. Part 1 of the book describes the focus of the study and background information on Head Start, Hoover Community Action Corporation (study pseudonym), and Wood River Head Start (study…

This document is a collection of Education Commission of the States notes that address a wide array of education issues. The notes provide brief overviews of state legislation passed or pending on specific education issues. It analyzes such matters as performance-based accountability systems; state-level policies regarding accreditation in public…

This issue of "NERRC Focus" describes the activities of Vermont's Special Education Program and Fiscal Review Panel (the Panel), created by the Vermont Legislature in 1998, to study the delivery of special education and other support services in Vermont school districts. The Panel's primary goal has been to review the programs and…

Anticipating Congressional hearings related to reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind Act, this report provides an analysis of preliminary hearings and related reports and proposals. The specific focus is on whether the reauthorization process is likely to include a substantive discussion of what is needed to enable all children to have an equal…

Anticipating Congressional hearings related to reauthorizing NCLB, this policy analysis report focuses on how learning supports can be enhanced in the reauthorized law. The intent is to enhance effectiveness in addressing the factors that interfere with a great many students succeeding at school. The emphasis is on fully integrating the…

The National Postsecondary Education Cooperative (NPEC), with the support of the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, was formed to develop ways to improve the utility of information for policy making at all levels and in all sectors of the postsecondary education enterprise. This report provides a model for…