This article examines the development of legislation to create a Minority Serving Institution federal designation for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) serving institutions. Specifically, the article draws from interviews with nineteen policy makers, congressional staffers, and community advocates in order to address their motivations for…

The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, Pub. L. No. 110-315, mandated GAO (Government Accountability Office) to study the financial and compliance audits and reviews required or conducted for the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) program and the Federal Direct Student Loan (DL) program. The Department of Education's (Education) Office of…

As the Obama Administration wrestles with the impending reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the continuing need for education reform, Eugene Hickok provides an insider's account of this historic legislation. A former key player in the Department of Education during the Bush administration, Hickok describes how Bush's education…

This article reports on a new study released by the Center on Education Policy (CEP) of states with five years of comparable test data which finds that student achievement in reading and math rose between 2005 and 2009 on state tests as well as on National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). The report also finds overlapping achievement gains…

Internationally, the question of how to qualify the workforce seems to be of increasing importance for competitive economies. How can politics govern the quantity and quality of employment structures and optimise both? In this article a theoretical framework is outlined that has been developed for the analysis of institutional constructs serving…

At a time when policymakers are demanding budget cuts and more innovative approaches to schooling, pressure is building for loosening up constraints on class sizes. After dropping for decades, average class sizes in American schools may be growing again as schools cope with budget shortfalls. Although some educators see the rising numbers as a…

Michael Apple's prescient review of Anyon et al.'s "Theory and Educational Research" reminds the educational community of the importance of purpose. In his own work, he has been consistent in--actually, insistent on--emphasizing the struggle over political projects. This is not an issue concerning only the Left as the scapegoat for the disparaging…

This brief essay celebrates the work of Len Barton. Drawing from a range of his texts, interviews and presentations, the essay attempts to demonstrate the importance of Barton's work in establishing foundations for the related fields of disability studies in education and inclusive education by revealing the politics of special educational needs…

This article charts the emergence of the sociology of disability and examines the areas of contestation. These have involved a series of erasures and absences--the removal of the body from debates on the social model of disability; the disappearance of the Other from educational policies and practices; and the absence of academics from political…

This article addresses two key questions about the convergence of education policies in the European Union (EU). How does the open method of coordination (OMC), a new governance instrument for the Europeanisation of education policies, change existing national education policy making and how can the OMC and national responses to it be researched?…

With the main political parties set on reducing public spending, one might be forgiven for supposing that "savage" cuts are the only way forward. However, the author believes there are alternatives, and that is why public education about the financial system is so important. Today, UK is trying to clear up a mess--a mess made by the…

Stakeholder analysis is a tool that can help museum educators identify and assess the potential influence of key people, groups of people, constituencies, and institutions on the success of their plans and programs. Educators, skilled at working with people, can use their well-honed interpersonal skills to understand networks of relationships to…

This paper examines the contribution of human rights education (HRE) to conflict prevention and to the promotion of security. It outlines the difficulties in evaluating the long-term impact of HRE, but then proposes five benefits of a rights-based approach to education--rights as secular, man-made, requiring transparency, enabling freedom from…

The UK coalition government has stated its ambition to create a "Big Society". This represents an attempt to alter the relationship between citizen and state, loosening the vertical ties that exist between government and the individual while strengthening the informal bonds of neighbourhoods and communities. This agenda runs through the…

The implementation of carbon dioxide capture and storage technology (CCS) is considered an important climate change mitigation strategy, but the viability of this technology will depend on public acceptance of CCS policy decisions. The results of three experiments with students as participants show that whether or not interest groups receive an…