Universities have always been important to national economies, but since the financial crisis of 2007-08 they have become key economic actors. Because they supply highly skilled labour and undertake basic research that enable nations to engage in global competition, they are capable of boosting production and innovation. This article explores the…

Teachers in American study-abroad programs usually receive little, if any, training before the trip, because "teaching is teaching". The cultural differences between Chinese and American university classrooms, however, affect the students' ability to learn and the teacher's ability to teach in profound ways. Foreign teachers in China require at…

Academic freedom has been a principle that undergirds the university since 1915. Beyond this, it also protects a spirit of free inquiry essential to a democratic society. But in the post-9/11 present, the basic principles of academic freedom have been deeply challenged. There have been many startling instances where the rhetoric of national…

Many U.S. public school systems now face three large demographic shifts: rising poverty, the growing number of students from immigrant families, and increasing populations of students of color. Yet, we know little about how district policymakers react to these important changes or indeed the factors that consistently shape their policymaking.…

This article examines the first regional governance reform in public education, created in the Omaha, Nebraska metropolitan area in 2007. The legislation creating this regional reform, which is called the Learning Community, established a regional governing body, the Learning Community Coordinating Council, consisting of an elected 21-member…

Currently school reform discourse encourages states to adopt college readiness standards. Meanwhile, federal and state accountability and related mandated reforms remain a policy concern. As such, it is important to examine the interplay between accountability and the establishment of a college-going culture in high "minority", high…

Over the past decade, several European countries have implemented policies and programmes leading to the introduction of the concept of "all-day schooling," thus acknowledging the need to guarantee the guard of all children and to enhance equal opportunities of success at school. The Portuguese Ministry of Education created and funded…

The PISA project has steadily increased its influence on the educational discourse and educational policies in the now 70 participating countries. The educational debate has become global, and the race to improve PISA-rankings has become high priority in many countries. For governments the PISA-test is a high-stake test. Governments are blamed for…

Driven by economic and educational imperatives, public policymakers, higher education leaders, and philanthropic and advocacy groups are mobilizing aggressive national and state campaigns to bolster college completion. Campaigns to improve student success are particularly concerned about the performance of the nation's community colleges. In…

Driven by economic and educational imperatives, public policymakers, higher education leaders, and philanthropic and advocacy groups are mobilizing aggressive national and state campaigns to bolster college completion. Campaigns to improve student success are particularly concerned about the performance of the nation's community colleges. In…

In November 2011, eleven states submitted applications to the U.S. Department of Education (ED) for waivers from key provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act. Although the waiver process presents an opportunity to strengthen college and career readiness among the nation's high school students, this analysis by the Alliance for Excellent…

This report concerns the corruption of the University of California by activist politics, a condition which, as it shall show, sharply lowers the quality of academic teaching, analysis, and research, resulting in the troubling deficiencies found in the studies to which the authors have referred. This report shall show that this is an inevitable…

The passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA), also known as the economic stimulus package, provided an extra $3 billion for school improvement grants (SIGs) under section 1003(g) of Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Along with this funding increase, the U.S. Department of Education issued guidance…

During the last 20 years, the United States has experienced more attempts at education reform than at any other time in its history. Efforts to reform financing, the assessment of student performance, accountability and equity, and school choice have all been implemented--with varying levels of success. Michael F. Addonizio and C. Philip Kearney…

The purpose of this study was to examine the 2005 and 2011 "South Carolina Social Studies Academic Curriculum Standards" for the 11th grade course, "United States History and Constitution". A survey was administered to 21 writers of the South Carolina standards. It was designed to gather data on respondents' perceptions of…