This study examined court records, probation records, and collection office records in four counties in Pennsylvania, which were chosen because they varied along two dimensions: (a) population size and (b) the use of specialized units for the collection of monetary sanctions. From each county, restitution-eligible cases were sampled from both 1994…

The achievement of adolescent literacy learners has become a significant topic of research and policy. This review of literature links current literacy learning theories, research that addresses the individualized nature of adolescent readers, and the literature delineating adolescent literacy policy. Researchers using naturalistic inquiry have…

On August 31, 2005, Nebraska state educational and policy leaders participated in the Nebraska Education Forum to discuss ways to improve student transition from high school to postsecondary education and careers. The forum was sponsored by the League for Innovation in the Community College and the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) and…

On May 8, 2006, Georgia state educational and policy leaders participated in the Georgia Education Forum to discuss ways to improve student transition from high school to postsecondary education and careers. The forum was sponsored by the League for Innovation in the Community College and the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) and supported…

This report focuses on published research about performance pay for teachers in Australian schools. This report falls into three main sections. The first provides an overview of current pay arrangements and collective enterprise bargaining agreements for Australian teachers. Within these arrangements, the report gives particular attention to…

Background/Context: Recent research indicates that social studies is being "squeezed" from the elementary curriculum as instructional time is shifted to language arts and mathematics in response to state testing and the federal No Child Left Behind Act, especially in schools serving poor students and students of color. However, less is…

Educators and policymakers who share the goal of equal opportunity in schools often hold differing notions of what entails a just school in multicultural America. Some emphasize the importance of integration and uniform treatment for all, while others point to the benefits of honoring cultural diversity in ways that make minority students feel at…

This report presents findings stemming from the first-year evaluation of the Texas Educator Excellence Grant (TEEG) program, one of several statewide performance incentive programs in Texas. In June 2006, Governor Perry and the 79th Texas Legislature created the Governor's Educator Excellence Award Program, one component of which is the TEEG…

A new report published by the Manhattan Institute for Education Policy, "The Effect of Special Education Vouchers on Public School Achievement: Evidence from Florida's McKay Scholarship Program," attempts to examine the complex issue of how competition introduced through school vouchers affects student outcomes in public schools. The…

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is a federal education law that was passed in 2001 with the laudable but challenging goal of closing the achievement gap between minority and white students and improving academic achievement among all students. To that end, NCLB has held states, school districts, and individual schools to impossibly high standards of…

In this chapter, the authors examine developments in the teacher workforce and in the occupation of teaching across recent generations. They take their point of departure from the perspective of prevailing policy discourse on enduring problems of educational equity, asking not only how teaching has evolved in recent decades but more specifically…

Recent debate about immigration policy has focused on whether or not immigrants' contributions to public revenues cover the costs of the public services they use, and if not, should the federal government reimburse state and local governments for those net costs. Findings of recent studies have varied widely, because of differences in data…

Rather than defining and debating particular goals, educational policymakers tend to focus on the technical issues surrounding educational practice. This book considers the social and ethical orientations that structure mainstream policy dialogues and the way in which adoption of some alternative social and ethical principles would change the form…

This report provides information about the state of Aboriginal corrections in Canada. It draws on survey results, analyses of quantitative data, and a review of the relevant literature and research and raises some complex questions about the meaning and future of Aboriginal corrections. There are nine parts that: (1) discuss the reliance on…

These two Kids Count brief reports discuss issues related to the well-being of Rhode Island children. The first report identifies ways to measure the impact of state and federal welfare reform proposals on children who receive benefits through Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). Potential measures of success for welfare reform include…