During the past year, the state of Michigan has made noteworthy changes in the accountability system used for NCLB. Partly as a result of these changes, the number of schools identified for restructuring has changed since the previous year. In addition, the state has continued providing various types of assistance to schools in restructuring. This…

Illinois Shifting Gears is a multilevel initiative that has simultaneously created bridge programs in the field and altered state policy to facilitate the creation of more programs in the future. These efforts have informed each other, giving policymakers the opportunity to interact with practitioners, troubleshoot bridge programs, and make…

The New Labour government identified the further education (FE) sector as a vehicle to deliver its central policies on social justice and economic competitiveness in England, which has led to a torrent of initiatives that have increased central scrutiny and control over FE. Although the connections between social justice, economic competitiveness…

In the context of institutional concern with academic misconduct by university students, this paper reports on research into disciplinary decision making by universities in respect of students. Through semi-structured interviews with student advocacy staff, the paper explores experiences of the quality and approach of university disciplinary…

"Strategy" is a word that has had an increasing use in recent years. The discipline of organisational studies has adopted this concept to set out the primacy of good business practices, such as foretelling risk and opportunity. Government policy documents use the term where medium- and long-term goals are set out, for example, the New…

This paper examines Australian policy on quality for early childhood education and care (ECEC). It investigates the existing national quality assurance system, Quality Improvement and Accreditation System (QIAS) and its application in childcare centres. However, Australia's recently elected federal government has shown enormous interest in…

This article considers participation in post-compulsory mathematics education (Advanced or A-level) which is currently exercising education policy-makers in England and elsewhere. I argue that the central problem is neither that of devising an economically motivated strategy for increasing student numbers nor simply raising the level of…

The paper argues that: (1) the demise of "occupational" and "internal" and the spread of "external" labour markets in growth areas of UK economy such as the creative and cultural sector, coupled with the massification of higher education which has created a new type of post-degree "vocational need", means…

Several states had an assessment that they considered to be an alternate assessment based on modified academic achievement standards (AA-MAS) in place, or in development, when the April 2007 federal regulations on modified achievement standards were finalized. This article uses publicly available information collected by the National Center on…

Higher education is the education level under the most pressure to be internationally liberalized. Currently, the main global instrument to achieve this liberalization goal is the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) of the World Trade Organization. In this paper, the process of trade liberalization of higher education in the GATS…

In this study, the author explores elementary mathematics instruction in the context of standards-based reform and special education policy. Based on observation of inclusive classrooms and interviews with 12 teachers, the author finds that instructional practice was only somewhat consistent with the policy messages to include students with…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) initiated sweeping changes to the U.S. educational system. However, many have argued that NCLB is not accomplishing its stated purposes of improving education for disadvantaged students and closing the achievement gap. This policy analysis sheds light on the social and emotional risk factors that prevent…

In 2004, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) concluded a 4-year, 10 million dollar contract with the University of Delaware to create the Sarajevo Graduate School of Business, the first Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business [AACSB]-accredited business school in Southeast Europe. This case study examines…

This paper presents research on the current debate in the Netherlands regarding integration and the teaching of 'norms and values' to adult newcomers. Data consisting of national and local (city of Rotterdam) integration policy documents and interviews with those influential in policy making were analyzed using a grounded theory approach. The…

As more countries are planning to inaugurate or enlarge student loan schemes, much of the debate is over the question of the optimal form of the repayment obligation: specifically, whether it should be according to a fixed schedule of payments or a percentage of earnings or income. This paper argues that the current fascination with income…