The American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia (AFT-WV) passed safe schools legislation in March 2008. To better understand how AFT-WV influenced the creation and eventual passage of safe schools legislation, several researchers conducted a case study examining the event and the circumstances surrounding it. In particular, they were interested…

Fees at California's public colleges and universities have increased in the past two decades, but are still lower than fees at comparable institutions in other states. Fees for full-time undergraduate students at the University of California were $8,027 in 2008-09 and fees at California State University were $3,849. Fees are likely to rise for the…

Approaching music from a sociological perspective, this book deals with the concept of ideology in relation to music. The focus of investigation is on the reflection of ideology and power relations in the music curriculum before and after Croatian independence. The goal of this work is to help our understanding of how and why certain musical…

The Delaware Department of Education, in collaboration with the Delaware Academy for School Leadership at the University of Delaware, has been the recipient of Wallace Foundation funding since 2000 as part of the foundation's initiative to develop and share ideas for strengthening education leadership. The grant has enabled the state education…

The neoliberal reform arrived at the market of higher education with the intention of introducing private dynamics into public organizations. Through this strategy, the objective was to improve efficiency by promoting intra- and intersectoral competition. The introduction of performance funding shifted the concept of accountability for…

This article discusses how international and national understandings of information and communication technology (ICT) and the knowledge economy inform contemporary higher education policies. Acknowledging that national educational policies in Latin America are increasingly influenced by the recommendations of international organizations (e.g. the…

The policy of the registration of School Management Committees (SMCs) as Incorporated Management Committees (IMCs) has led to a dispute between the School Sponsoring Bodies (SSBs) and the Education and Manpower Bureau (EMB, renamed Education Bureau, EDB in July 2007) and has caused great tension between the two parties. However, in this heated…

Through an overview and analysis of the major national education and adult education policies, this paper endeavours to present the driving forces of the development of contemporary Chinese adult education, to identify and examine the highlights of current practices, and to discuss future developments. Questions for exploring and informing the…

This article presents the findings from the 2009 "Education Next" and Harvard's Program on Education Policy and Governance (PEPG) survey which asks if information changes minds about school reform. The authors fielded the survey in March of 2009, when newly elected president Barack Obama enjoyed public approval ratings above 60 percent.…

Questions of educational adequacy and school spending have long been a point of contention in school reform. Amid the recent economic turmoil and gaping state budget shortfalls, questions of whether court-ordered funding remedies have delivered--and why they have or have not--have taken on particular import. This forum offers two sharply different…

This paper is an exploratory study of Professor Don Jansiewicz's GAME of POLITICS (The Game) simulation. The course instructor employs The Game in his introductory American Politics class as a learning tool for better understanding the legislative-executive process. Our exploratory study used legislative-executive process questions as part of two…

Free speech concerns associated with collective bargaining become important when unions impose fair-share fees that charge nonmembers for costs associated with the benefits they receive through labor negotiations. When unions collect fair-share fees, those payments often support causes with which nonmembers and dissenting members disagree.…

This article discusses several strategies for building varied bases of influence within a college setting. These strategies include, providing opportunities for success, advocating and implementing good ideas, interacting with individuals on both the personal and non-personal levels, establishing support among marginal individuals, learning to…

This paper reports on a five-year study which explored the engagement of a group of long-term mentally ill adults in community provision in which they learned basic, expressive literacy. The research mapped points in the learning, writing and auto/biographic engagement where set identities were being troubled, and frisson created in the challenge…

This study explores the influence of the 1994 tax reform on intraprovincial inequality in financing basic education. The empirical analysis finds that the reform has decreased inequality in general, suggesting that the center may attain its policy goal through centralizing its relative fiscal capability and increasing the intergovernmental…