Whereas internationally the shift towards quality control of school systems started in the early 1980s, mainly promoted by transnational agencies, this development only began in Germany in the mid 1990s. However, a clear-cut change from an input-controlled and centralised to a more output-controlled, decentralised and deregulated supervision…

This paper seeks to shift debate from the question of whether charter schools are serving their "fair share" of students with disabilities to the more fruitful question of how finance and choice policies influence special education enrollment rates in charter schools. A school's incentive to enroll a student with disabilities depends on…

This article raises existential questions about the African University. In search of an identity of the African University, the article surveys and re-affirms a descriptive definition of the African University. Furthermore, it surveys contextual challenges of internationalization that should be peculiar to the African University and uses them to…

Sir Martin Harris, ex-Vice Chancellor of Manchester and of Essex, is appointed as the first Director of the Office for Fair Access (OFFA). The Higher Education Act 2004 creates (s31) "the Director of Fair Access to Higher Education" and then requires (s24) higher education institutions (HEIs) to agree "approved plans" with…

The future of Greece's well-being will depend on improving educational performance to boost productivity and improve social outcomes. In the current economic context, with the need to get best value for spending, Greece must and can address inefficiencies in its education system. The challenges are significant. For example, Greece lags behind many…

The history of intergovernmental relations in educational policy has been dominated by regulations, categorical programs, and technical assistance by higher levels of government to stimulate or require lower levels to make changes in policy and practice. This paper summarizes recent research collected by the Consortium of Policy Research in…

The expression "site-based management" (SBM) has become part of the rhetoric of reform of U.S. public schools. The United States has been involved in school reform efforts for many years now, including attempts at SBM. The case of the Toledo (Ohio) public schools serves as a prime example of an urban school district that, like many…

Charter schools have emerged as the latest model for school reform. This handbook contextualizes the emergence of the charter-school concept by examining both the broader political shift in educational governance toward local control and the more specific movement in school reform toward greater institutional autonomy and school-based change. The…

Although differences in the organization of public and private schools are a focus of school reform discussions, those differences are not well understood. Using data from a national sample of secondary schools in the 1990-91 Schools and Staffing Survey, conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), this report examined…

Local management of schools, parental choice, and accountability were crucial themes of Great Britain's 1988 Education Reform Act. Central government's belief in market forces as the key to sustained systemwide school improvement was further supported by the 1993 Education Act, which increased the variety of school offerings for parental choice by…

This booklet contains information designed to familiarize personnel at charter schools in North Carolina with the financial services offered by the Division of School Business and the reporting requirements of the division. The division seeks to ensure fair and equitable distribution of and accountability for the optimal use of state and federal…

Since 1993, school reform leaders from Chicago (Illinois), Denver (Colorado), New York (New York), Seattle (Washington), and Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) have come together in the Cross City Campaign to work for the improvement of urban education. In each of these cities rhetorical pleas for decentralization and the investment of decision making in…

The outcomes of charter schools to date are inconclusive. This report examines the charter legislation in 25 states in reference to the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) criteria. The criteria evaluate the legislation in regard to the likelihood that it will produce quality schools and/or serve as examples of how the larger system of public…

This collection of nine articles presents case studies of educational reform and change in 10 nations, focusing on the changing role of government involvement in higher education. The articles are: (1) "University-State Relations in Britain: Paradigm of Autonomy" (Peter Scott); (2) "Changing Conceptions of State-University…

It is possible to give a concrete meaning to the usually vague concept of decentralization by examining four core components. First, at the crux of decentralization is a downward shift in decision-making power. Administrative decentralization entails shifts internal to the institution. Political decentralization shifts authority to external forces…