We examine the effects of governments' use of alternative service provision on public employment using panel data from a nationally representative sample of local governments. We model the effects of alternative service provision on the size of the public workforce and hypothesize that alternative provision jointly impacts both full- and part-time…

Swedish compulsory schools are the most autonomous in Europe regarding time allocation and time management. Still, the Swedish state decided to take this even further, when introducing an experiment that permits some compulsory schools to abandon the regulations of the national time schedule. The aim of this study is to explore and analyse the…

This article explores the problematic tensions between schooling and environmental education in the United States, with a special focus on the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Today in the United States, this powerful federal legislation dominates the discourse and practice of schooling, and works against the aims of environmental education in…

This article will illuminate how public narratives about teachers within the Norwegian national curriculum documents regulating teacher education (1999 and 2003) and elementary school (1997) construct teacher identities. The aim is not to define what identity Norwegian teachers as a group or individuals possess, but to describe how teacher…

This article reviews federal policy affecting families who have children or adult members with disabilities, particularly but not exclusively developmental disabilities. It reviews the federal statutes and family-and-disability related decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court and the other courts. It then reviews the research on current family support…

Hong Kong has undergone a series of educational reforms since the mid 1990s in response to the tidal wave of globalisation. This article tries to examine the recent education reforms in Hong Kong's higher education within the global context, by putting into perspective a discussion of its policy implications of marketisation, privatisation and…

This chapter introduces the concepts of the human capital economy and the changing demography of the United States; it explores federal, state, and institutional policy choices relative to them. It points out consistent failures to address the imperatives of these concepts.

This report describes how California is providing direct intervention to improve structures and processes in districts, which is intended over time to improve curriculum, instruction, and student achievement at the school level. For districts subject to federal Corrective Action under NCLB, California's approach is "top down" in that…

Background: In 2008 primary education in England reached, historically, another important phase in its development. Government reviewed the primary curriculum and some aspects of the national system of assessment. These government reviews coincided with an independent "Primary Review" based at the University of Cambridge to which the…

With the maturation of the internet more and more colleges and universities are offering online courses. As these courses enter the mainstream, public policy issues are beginning to emerge. Many of these involve the tension between the "work for hire" doctrine and academic freedom that occurs when educational institutions offer these…

Pensions are an important but comparatively unexamined component of human resource policies in education. In an increasingly competitive world where employees are more mobile than ever, pension policies that were designed in the last century may be out of step with the needs of both individuals and schools. This background paper aims to foster…

Students' high school experiences often do not prepare them adequately for postsecondary education and the world of work. Special attention should be paid to increasing the rigor, relevance, and engagement of the high school curriculum, including for students who have traditionally faced barriers to successful postsecondary transitions. This Issue…

Little is known about the kind of learning that occurs when teachers' professional development is situated at the intersection between university coursework, school practices and the lived realities of local communities. This study explores five years of data from a graduate seminar for inservice teachers, which examines how schools are situated…

This article investigates the notions of race, gender and learning technology as a consequence of the commodification of educational administrative systems (part of new managerialism--neo-liberalism), in order to foster debate. It also asks if new managerialism is an appropriate model within an African arena. New managerialism can be defined as…

Latinos now live and work in areas of the United States where they have not been before. These changes impact schools in a variety ways. This article reviews recent research on how communities have responded in the South, New England and the West with a primarily assimilationist approach including English-only policies. The article then provides a…