This policy brief summarizes findings presented at a February 2009 research conference on teacher retirement systems hosted by the National Center on Performance Incentives (NCPI) at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College. The 2009 conference was the second in a series of NCPI events focusing on findings from recent research on issues related to…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. This edition contains the following features: (1) Obama Signs "Largest Investment in Education in the Nation's History": Economic Recovery Legislation Includes Nearly $100 Billion…

This is the first report from an ongoing study of four urban school districts (New York, New Orleans, Chicago, and the District of Columbia) that are experimenting with new school designs and new ways of holding schools accountable for performance. This report introduces the idea of a "portfolio school district," and shows how some leading school…

The purpose of this support document is to: (1) provide a fuller version of the literature review than in the report and issues paper; and (2) provide the interview schedules that were used to gather the data for this project. (Contains 7 footnotes.) [Funding for this report was provided through the Australian Department of Education, Science and…

According to Martin, Benjamin, Prosser, and Trigwell (1999), the scholarship associated with teaching consists of three related activities which integrate the key functions of higher education, namely engagement with the existing knowledge on teaching and learning; self-reflection on teaching and learning in one's discipline; and the public…

In April 2009, a high school principal in a large Arizona school district met individually with 18 of his most senior teachers to inform them that they would not have a job the following year. Why didn't tenure protect them from wholesale dismissal? The answer is they all had one thing in common: they were retirees who had been leased or hired…

This paper focuses on the history of relations between colonialism, schooling and social change in Australia, Papua New Guinea and Ireland, countries that were once part of the British Empire. It indicates that responses to schooling ranged from acceptance and tolerance, to modification and rejection, depending on the country, the issue, and the…

Since Independence in 1963, Kenya has launched three Free Primary Education programmes: the first in 1974, the second in 1979 and the most recent in 2003. Using historical data, this paper first outlines each initiative in turn, and discusses why, in the case of the earlier initiatives, impressive initial gains in improved access proved difficult…

High school teacher Megan Behrent reflects on the impact of Obama's election on the students in her high school classroom. Obliged to temper her students' joyful exuberance on the morning of November 5, 2008, Behrent found that the election fervor highlighted for her the ways that schooling under NCLB has constrained both educators and students,…

When students fail courses or drop out of school, it isn't good for them or their districts, which are under federal and state mandates to improve test scores and graduation rates. With those mandates and about 1.2 million students dropping out each year--or one every 26 seconds--there is more pressure today than ever to help students stay in…

The expectations and demands with respect to teaching and research have been changing for universities due to changes in their institutional environments. Born out of changing national research policies and modern governance arrangements, efficiency, effectiveness and output-oriented cultures have become increasingly important. In this article we…

When scholars write about their research in writing programs' archives, they often face the ethical question of whether to name the administrators who were involved in documents. The author identifies and provides examples of three basic orientations to this issue, which he calls overt-historical, covert-qualitative, and hybrid-institutional.…

Head Start, the federal program that provides preschool education, health, and social services for children from poor families, is one of the United States' most popular government programs. Created in 1965, it has endured as a symbol of commitment to children, serving just fewer than one million children a year in neighborhood sites across the…

I examine three main issues, which are directly linked to school management developments in South Africa since 1994: school leadership and management; professionalisation of principalship through the South African Standard for School Leadership (SASSL); and leading and managing the learning school. In exploring these issues I draw mainly on a…

In recent years 14-19 education has been the subject of numerous reviews, innovations and policy changes. What can be learnt from this experience and do current policies incorporate this learning? In this book, leading experts on 14-19 education and training explore the concept of policy-learning and examine recent policies and policy-making in…