The academic success of home schooling has been repeatedly documented. There are now 1.23 million children being home schooled in the United States Home schoolers have been a key part of the coalition fighting nationalized testing. They have also been disproportionately subject to child abuse investigations by social workers. As a result, they…

Asserts that composition specialists must pay attention to technology issues. Offers suggestion of Web sites for critically informed action on technological literacy to try to ensure that all Americans have real access to the technologies underlying the quickly changing forms of literacy. (SR)

There is little research-based analysis of education's past or prospective contribution to the constitutional reconstruction of Scottish participatory democracy. Describes the constitutional changes occurring in Scotland and the relationship between educational research and policy. Analyzes positive and negative elements of educational research…

Explores district leaders' roles in implementing a year-round schooling reform. Examines experiences of four Florida districts, stressing social, political, and fiscal contexts. Leaders promote innovation by acting humanely and openly, and by eschewing unfulfillable promises. Creating widespread support, being flexible, and crafting a climate for…

The Improving America's School Act funds numerous small programs that dissipate its purpose and increase its vulnerability. Congress is debating extension of federal roles into areas such as social promotion, parental rights, reading programs, class-size reduction, and national voluntary tests. Changing budget rules pits education against military…

Although vouchers were popular among 1970s leftists, a political standoff has kept them unavailable to 99% of urban school children. This article debunks common arguments against vouchers and advocates a system that awards substantial voucher amounts (a 20% spending boost) to needy students, thus mollifying conservatives and progressives. (MLH)

Fearing security problems, a congressional committee on Chinese espionage recommends that foreign students and other foreign nationals be barred from using supercomputers at national laboratories unless they first obtain export licenses from the federal government. University officials dispute the data on which the report is based and find the…

Sets the current public debate about gender and schooling in England into a historical and a United Kingdom-wide context, addressing the highly politicized context in which educational research on gender has taken place over the past 20 years, discussing the feminization of teaching, and examining attacks on English schools for failing boys as a…

Although schools are planning and implementing local area networks and Internet access, acquiring and maintaining technology can be exceptionally costly. Administrators must decide between pedagogical need versus a political, reactive "keeping up with the Joneses" mentality valuing high student-to-computer ratios. Schools need more…

A small, well-regarded Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) program that finances innovations in higher education has resisted a push by Congress to influence which institutions should receive grants. Its new round of awards includes only one of 11 institutions suggested by Congress. (MSE)

Presents conclusions about school failure in European countries reached by the European Symposium on School Failure. The conclusions focus on the conceptualization of school failure, acceptance of the problem by governments, frequently adopted solutions, more coherent solutions, and implications for teacher education (prerequisites, the…

Offers a first appraisal of the life and work of George Collins, a leading figure in the unionization of school teachers in late-19th-century England. Discusses his impact on the prescribed social status of teachers, the organization of teachers into associations for mutual improvement, and the formation of national educational policies. (DSK)

Discusses principles about writing instruction that emerged from mainstreaming basic writers in first-year composition at California State University, Chico: (1) students learn college writing by being in the context of college writing, not some other context; and (2) literacy learning does not come in discreet levels. Describes how writers in…

Draws on several research projects to examine approaches by disabled people in Zimbabwe to educational praxis that set the stage for a liberation pedagogy with implications for all minority groups. Focuses on the experiences of the deaf. Contrasts the litigation emphasis of the U.S. disability rights movement with the Zimbabwean experience of…

Too often school counselors are evaluated through a teacher-assessment process bearing little relevance to (poorly defined) counseling tasks or roles. Evaluation is hindered by lack of a developmental model and by administrative pressures to perform tasks outside counselors' training and experience. Improvement measures are outlined. (Contains 16…