The Common Core State Standards' emphasis on informational text arose in part from research suggesting that employers and college instructors found students weak at comprehending technical manuals, scientific and historical journals, and other texts pivotal to work in those arenas. The common core's vision of informational text includes literary…

In Kyrgyzstan, the breakup of the USSR raised many issues related to equity and fairness in education, one of which is the distribution of public funds to support scholarship admissions to higher education institutions. After 1992, public institutions could begin to charge tuition fees, but as a legacy of the USSR, Kyrgyzstan continues providing…

Context: The 2008 financial crisis had a far-reaching impact on nearly every sector of the economy. As unemployment increased so did the uninsured. Already operating on a slim margin and poor payer mix, many critical access hospitals are facing a tough road ahead. Purpose: We seek to examine the increasing impact of uncompensated care on the…

For the last decade, in districts big and small, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has emerged as the largest private funder of educational efforts. This began with an initiative around small schools in the early to mid-2000s, mostly abandoned now, and has gained traction in the past few years in areas such as teacher evaluation, the Common…

Growing interest in bilingual education in sub-Saharan Africa has highlighted an urgent need for reading material in African languages. In this paper, we focus on authors, one of several groups of stakeholders with responsibility for meeting this demand. We address three main issues: the nature and extent of African language publishing for…

This study addresses parent experiences in obtaining and managing hearing aids for their young child. The purpose was to identify challenges parents encounter to determine what state agencies can do to improve parent access to amplification. Data were collected July through September of 2010; 40 parents of children ages birth to 3 years old…

A Delphi study has been carried out, soliciting views from higher education experts on likely and desirable developments in English higher education until 2025. The paper reports the most salient findings of the Delphi questionnaire and presents two scenarios that focus largely on the institutional fabric of the system. The first scenario follows…

With a little ingenuity and a lot of dedication, the author created a self-funded construction program that is weathering the ups and downs of school funding; it enjoys great support from the community, is accomplishing more with less, and collaborative efforts between teachers are paying off. Creating such a program takes time, vision,…

This paper explores the major characteristics of school choice in the Chinese context. It highlights the involvement of cultural and economic capital, such as choice fees, donations, prize-winning certificates and awards in gaining school admission, as well as the use of social capital in the form of "guanxi". The requirement for these…

A descriptive multiple regression approach was used to assess the job satisfaction of female and male public school superintendents taking part in a decennial survey conducted by AASA. Self-reported job satisfaction of public school superintendents was regressed on their affective reactions to specific job facets (supervision, co-workers, and…

Without adequate time and resources, it is impossible for school districts and schools to support professional learning that leads to effective teaching practices, supportive leadership, and improved student results. That's why one of the seven new standards in Learning Forward's Standards for Professional Learning focuses specifically on…

This study considered the impact of the SERVE Program at Ignatius University upon participating students' expected political involvement. The SERVE Program is a community service learning program sponsored jointly by Ignatius University's philosophy and theology departments. Through a mixed methods research design, the authors found that Ignatius…

The economic downturn has hit everyone hard. The author's organization, the Los Angeles Opera, has completed two years of downsizing, resulting in an almost 25% reduction in staff and overall budget cutting. Change that is not "nipping and tucking," but changing the dynamic and culture of the institution. However, if the organization hadn't done…

This paper considers the question of how to "measure" democracy i.e. attach an objective, or at least standardized, quantitative value to a nation or polity's level of democracy. A number of instruments have been independently developed with this aim in mind. To what extent do they measure the same phenomenon, and how closely are their findings…

Down payment or closing cost assistance is an effective program in addressing the wealth constraints of low-and moderate-income homebuyers. However, the spillover effect of such programs on the neighborhood is unknown. This paper estimates the impact of the City of Dallas Mortgage Assistance Program (MAP) on nearby home values using a hedonic…