The use of evidence in health promotion has become the gold standard, and obliges rethinking how to increase the (often limited) use of evidence in public health policy. Recently calls have been made to reconceptualise science policy relations as dynamic, interactive and co-constructive practices. Building on a qualitative investigation of an…

This dissertation is to deal the issues of open education, creative economies, higher education. It also compares the performances in these aspects among different countries. The conception of the "creative economy" develops within the context of "global neoliberalism" and "knowledge economy." These three notions are…

The pursuit of common educational expectations, or standards, among the states has long been a conversation met with strong opinions--for and against. However, it seems clear that high standards and consistency are both critical characteristics to have in educational programs. The task to achieve such is certainly not expected to be easy. Using…

This article looks at methodological issues arising from collecting data from policy makers. Interview episodes highlight how the processes of role-ascription and the negotiation of competences between the interviewee and the interviewer can be meaningful in terms of the analysis of "elite interviews". In the interviews, the interactions…

India has seen an explosion in low-fee private (LFP) schooling aimed at the poorer strata of society, and this once-urban phenomenon has spread in the last decade to rural areas, with implications for equity due to the level of direct costs involved. This study explores whether or not LFP schooling in rural India is pro-poor and equitable, and…

It is well known that chronic diseases are the most common, costly, and preventable of all health issues in the United States. Chronic diseases continue to be a major health concern. Of the top 10 leading causes of mortality, 7 are identified as chronic. More recently, the prevalence of these chronic conditions has increased among the adolescent…

Recent pronouncements on the benefits of enlisting civil society in educational development have so far not attracted adequate scholarly analyses. This paper therefore seeks to present a critical perspective on this new trend by providing a fine-grained look at three concrete cases of NGO involvement in educational policy-making in Nepal. It also…

This article features two documents which can serve as a starting point for a lesson on public service while students debate the amount of pay that public servants should receive. These are: (1) the printed draft of the Constitution showing George Washington's handwritten corrections that eliminated state payments and included the phrase "to be…

Academic and journalistic comment is prioritised by the endless flood of policy initiatives. Yet these can be seen to be determined by long term intellectual frameworks which define why some issues remain constant and others remain marginal. Thus the dominance of academic provision and neglect of the vocational dates back to the nineteenth…

This study asks how government accountability reports are used to influence public education policy. Government accountability reports, called "audits" in Utah, prove to be useful tools for examining education policy. Using a collective case study design examining Utah's Class Size Reduction (CSR) policy, government accountability…

Drawing on interview data from reading policy actors in California, Michigan, and Texas, this study applied Kingdon's (1984, 1995) multiple streams model to explain how the issue of reading became prominent on the agenda of state governments during the latter half of the 1990s. A combination of factors influenced the status of a state's reading…

Text comprehension plays a fundamental role in the processes of acquisition, sharing, and construction of knowledge. Most definitions share the focus on the interaction between text and reader's prior knowledge. In this paper both direct and indirect effects of prior knowledge on reading comprehension have been analyzed, along with other…

This 2015 Brown Center Report (BCR) represents the fourteenth edition of the series since the first issue was published in 2000. It includes three studies. Like all previous BCRs, the studies explore independent topics but share two characteristics: they are empirical and based on the best evidence available. The studies in this edition are on the…

This report commemorates the fifth anniversary of the Getting Down to Facts project, which sought to provide a thorough and reliable analysis of the critical challenges facing California's education system as the necessary basis for an informed discussion of policy changes aimed at improving the performance of California schools and students. The…

This research thesis sheds lights on different aspects of the transition toward information societies. It consists of a collection of interrelated studies that analyze in more rigorous terms three main and complementary aspects of the transition (see Figure below). After and "introductory" CHAPTER ONE, the consecutive CHAPTER TWO of this…