"Sony Music v. Easyinternetcafe" has introduced a new facet to the debate concerning the copyright legality of peer-to-peer file transfer. The judgment and subsequent settlement has highlighted that companies offering services that are used to infringe copyright may be held to account in the UK courts. Liability may extend from the…

This paper examines the legislative framework developed in New Zealand over the last 15 years to facilitate greater parental choice in education. The discussion is set within the context of changes to admission practices in a number of education systems to advance the privatisation agenda, and outlines the resurgence of interest in the development…

The Basque School, as well as a type of school, is an educational phenomenon that emerged and underwent most of its development during the twentieth century. Some initial confusion existed between the terms "Basque school," "bilingual school" and "ikastola," due to the undefined nature of the Basque model of schooling…

This article investigates the contribution skills development can make in promoting South Africa's wider socio-economic development. It provides a broad overview of the emerging gap between those who are benefiting from South Africa's transition to democracy and those who are not. Overcoming these worsening social conditions has become a major…

This report presents findings from the second-year evaluation of the Governor's Educator Excellence Grant (GEEG) program. The GEEG program was federally- and state-funded and provided three-year grants to schools to design and implement performance pay plans from the 2005-06 to 2007-08 school years. GEEG was implemented in 99 high poverty, high…

This study empirically tests the notion that consolidating smaller public school districts will save taxpayers money. Multiple regression analyses are employed to analyze the relationship between district size and per-pupil expenditures in the state of Michigan, focusing on the five most recent school years for which data are available. The…

This report summarizes the 2006-2007 evaluation that was focused toward investigating one primary question: What changes in tool-based, student-centered teaching happen as a result of the infusion of technology and professional development? The research methodology involved the use of trained external researchers from Florida EETT schools…

The "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" examines what is arguably the single most powerful authority over the teaching profession: state government. This Alabama edition of the National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ's) "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" is the first of what will be an annual look at the status of state policies…

An "environmental scan" is designed to identify key issues of policy and practice in an area of interest so that action can be taken. By definition, an environmental scan focuses upon areas of concern. However, the results of an environmental scan are not designed to be either an indictment or endorsement of the current way of doing…

The history of remote school education in the Northern Territory can best be summarised as years of lost opportunities, pedagogies of discrimination, and diminished lives for those parents and children who trusted and responded to the government's invitation to come to school. From late 2001 to 2005 historic educational change occurred in the…

In the United States, the relationship between state governments and public colleges and universities is being redefined with new notions of autonomy and accountability, and with funding policies that are highly market-driven (often referred to as "privatisation") as the centrepieces. Situations and institutional strategies unthinkable…

The article presents a comparative analysis of educational policy and provision in Sweden and Australia, with particular emphasis on the relative investment in continuing and further education in both countries. The authors investigate the extent to which further education opportunities provide a "second chance" at learning for adults…

Education names and classifies individuals. This result seems unavoidable. For example, some students will graduate, and some will not. Those who graduate will be "graduates"; those who do not graduate will be labeled otherwise. The only way to avoid such labeling is to fail to make distinctions of any kind. Yet education is rife with…

Central to California's school accountability system are programs to engage low-performing schools in improvement efforts. One of these is the High Priority Schools Program (HPSGP), created by Assembly Bill 961 (Chapter 747, "Statutes of 2001") to provide funds to the lowest performing schools in the state. To be eligible for funding,…

Today, administrators must assume a different mindset if public schools are to remain viable and functional. Changing populations resulting in heterogeneous communities, the diversity of community values, and the finite resources available to meet the infinite desires of a demanding constituency have created the necessity for political acumen on…