The purpose of this article is to bring together findings developed from the Schools and Continuing Professional Development in England--State of the Nation Study. This large-scale national study, commissioned by the Training and Development Agency for Schools, investigated the range and kinds of continuing professional development (CPD)…

State test scores administered for accountability purposes are regularly used to adjust instruction in nuanced ways. This is no accident--No Child Left Behind demanded that students' scores be returned quickly to teachers in order that this might be the case, and the idea of data-driven decision making continues as one way the promise of education…

In this article the authors argue that the researcher reflective journal is a critical interpretive tool for conducting educational policy analysis. The idea for this research grew from the experiences of a doctoral candidate (Ruth) in pursuit of a policy focused dissertation and a series of on-going conversations with her qualitative…

There is a growing literature on the assessment of quality of life conditions in geographically and/or politically divided regions. Sometimes these territories are countries within a specified supranational structure, such as the European Union, for instance, and sometimes they are regions within countries. There is also some research that focuses…

Over the past 70 years, all states in the United States began to publicly subsidize kindergarten using state revenue. The variation in adoption dates across states allows for a unique opportunity to measure the effectiveness of the largest early education program implemented in recent history. The significant, immediate increase in the…

As people who were involved with drafting the 2010 National Educational Technology Plan (NETP), the authors have taken the opportunity to respond to the very interesting perspectives in this special issue. The thoughts here represent only their views and are not an official statement of either the US Department of Education or the NETP Technical…

The goal of this article is to examine how the provincial education media in China play a role of forging consensus among local actors responsible for the implementation of new centrally-promulgated youth socialization policy. In doing so, it also explores the tension among three of the Chinese state's claims to legitimacy: economic development,…

This study identifies a unique context for exploring lay understandings of language testing and, by extension, for characterizing the nature of language assessment literacy among non-practitioners, stemming from data in an inquiry into the registration processes and support for overseas trained doctors by the Australian House of Representatives…

Two interrelated studies were undertaken to assist Alberta post-secondary institutions with meeting challenges associated with providing services to diverse distributed students that are of similar quality to services provided to traditional classroom students. The first study identified and assessed best practices in distributed learning; the…

The International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) publishes a research agenda on an ongoing basis to continue its work in field-building, capacity-building and knowledge-building. Based on a 2013 survey of the field to identify research needs, iNACOL developed a research approach, including the following: (1) Build a collaborative…

The four "home countries" of the United Kingdom are becoming increasingly different with regard to education policy. Nevertheless, they are still highly comparable as compared to education systems elsewhere. Over time, they have had a similar legislative framework (particularly in England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and, in a broader…

Typical comparisons of schools in the United States to those in other countries ignore critical factors and overlook potential lessons learned. But here's a book that reveals what the best schools from around the world are doing to educate students for a rapidly changing innovation-based world. Find out that American education has not "gotten…

Hobson's choice is a "no-choice" choice that gives general and special educators the traditional impetus to do what they want in classrooms. While there is some "goodness" in having this power and audacity to control whatever happens in classrooms, it does not allow for creativity, flexibility, adaptability, modification, especially in behavior…

This qualitative study investigated the experiences and perspectives of seven New Teacher Academy facilitators and how the facilitation experience provided opportunities for learning, professional development, and renewal for these experienced educators. Through interviews, participant vignettes, document analysis, and a researcher journal, this…

This paper explores two inter-connected issues--the state's role in educational development and educational contribution to economic development--in the policy processes entailed by the South Korean state's pursuit of economic development during the Park Chung Hi era, 1961-1979. It disputes the statist view that South Korea's economic development…