In New York City and state, charter schools are slowly gaining momentum through performance that speaks for itself, and with quick action by authorizers and charter advocates when schools fail. But as the New York charter experience should demonstrate to districts and states nationwide, meeting the urgent need for systemwide improvement is far…

This paper presents and analyzes two examples of classroom discourse which belong to the genre of "talk about texts." Both are extracts from discussions between a small group of primary school students and their teacher (in England) on the topic of short texts of narrative fiction which they have just read together during the…

This manual guides K-12 teachers through a two-week study of the election process in Indiana culminating in a school-based election. Election procedure is followed from voter registration through election returns. Indiana law mandates the study of elections during election years; this manual was created to facilitate the process. Grade levels and…

Since 1873, Maine has financed the private school education of thousands of K-12 students. This lets parents in towns without traditional public schools choose from a list of approved private and public schools, enroll their children, and have the town pay the tuition up to an authorized amount. The town receives full or partial reimbursement from…

This paper presents a contextual framework for analysis of Hispanic leadership in higher education and reviews the demographics of Hispanic college presidents, their challenges, and related leadership issues. It can be argued that Hispanic leadership in higher education brings a socially marginalized experience that, by emphasizing social justice,…

The five former Soviet republics of Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan) have become separate states, developing at different rates and in different directions, and with different political and economic regimes. As a result, the cohesion of the region has broken down and economic development is…

A widening skills gap is at the heart of many of the major economic and social challenges the United States faces today. Too many Americans lack the basic skills and educational attainments required by a postindustrial economy. This places severe limits on the American economy to innovate, grow, and compete in the global marketplace. It…

A foreword and 11 articles discuss the nature and structure of public scholarship. The contents include: "Foreword" (Deborah Witte); (1) "Public Scholarship: The Dissemination of Knowledge" (Jean Cameron) which maintains the public has claims on higher education as a creator and disseminator of knowledge; (2) "Daring to Be…

This study uses the Benefit Incidence Analysis to examine the distribution of public spending across different socioeconomic groups before and after the government of Malawi made great changes in educational policy in 1994. Primary education was made the top priority with increased spending on education and primary school fees abolished. The…

Shortly before his death in December 1995, Dr. Ernest Boyer (former President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teachers); working in consultation with his wife, Kay, developed a list of speeches from his Carnegie years that touched on several of the abiding principles underpinning his work. Many of the speeches chosen for this…

The politics of education is driven by a complex interrelationship among politicians, private foundations, teachers' unions, special-interest groups, school administrators, boards of education, courts, and the "knowledge industry." Chapter 1 focuses on the major actors in the politics of education, and chapter 2 analyzes the…

This book focuses on the financing of formal primary and secondary education in developing nations. The study does not consider the areas of pre-primary, post-secondary, or nonformal education. Financing includes not only monetary inputs to education, but also material, labor, expertise, and land. The study examines the volume, nature, and…

This book on education and challenges in the Pacific Rim contains 12 papers as follows: "Introduction: Education Issues in the Pacific Rim" (Keith Sullivan); "We Can Change Tomorrow by What We Do Today: Aboriginal Teacher Education in Canada" (Lynn McAlpine); "Judging Education: Implications of the Canadian Charter of…

Among the protest movements of the 1960s, the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) emerged as one of the principal Chicano organizations seeking social change. This in-depth study of MAYO is based on interviews, letters, diaries, position papers, participant observations, and secondary sources such as newspapers and articles. The…

This study assesses how much control governments of the Commonwealth of Nations (formerly the British Commonwealth) are exercising over their universities. The study encompassed a review of the relevant literature, an examination of the acts and statutes which control universities, and a questionnaire sent to 70 university vice chancellors, which…