Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS)--a strategy to improve families' access to high-quality child care--assess the quality of child care programs, offer incentives and assistance to programs to improve their ratings, and give information to parents about the quality of child care. These systems are operating in a growing number of…

Research shows that early intervention is vital to improve the life chances of children in areas and situations of disadvantage. One also knows that many less advantaged families feel more comfortable receiving advice about supporting their children's literacy from a friend or peer rather than a professional, and equally that many people are keen…

Education cut-backs are likely to worsen in the short run. This makes it imperative for policy makers to reverse trends toward lopsided cutbacks that decimate efforts to address factors interfering with learning and teaching. Furthermore, it is essential to move forward in more cost-effective ways by unifying student and learning supports and…

This paper is in response to a request from the California State Board of Education and the California Advisory Commission on Special Education. Its sections include a national overview of special education funding and provision, special education in California compared to the nation, a more detailed examination of state-level special education…

Adult schools are facing the biggest threat to their existence since the first school was founded in California a century and a half ago. An EdSource survey in October-November 2011 found that 23 of the state's 30 largest school districts had made major cuts to their adult education programs, including Anaheim Union High School District, which…

Distance education is often hailed as the answer to the worlds problems of educational provision particularly in the developing countries of which African governments are no exception. Distance education has been used for both pre-service and in-service education, and at most levels of education. However, other than the structural differences…

Two recent peer-reviewed studies support the need to update the traditional school design model that has remained fundamentally unchanged for over a century. In a 2011 study published by the American Educational Research Journal, entitled "Problem-Based Learning in K-12 Education," Clarice Wirkala and Deanna Kuhn document a 200-500…

The dissertation adviser's task may be to give advice, but his or her approval is required for the thesis to pass and the degree to be awarded. It is the graduate student's dissertation, but the imprimatur belongs to the dissertation adviser, so perhaps the process belongs to both of them. But that equation leaves out some other important actors,…

Two years after the U.S. Department of Education awarded $650 million in Investing in Innovation grants, some of the winners are still facing financial uncertainty. Other grantees have also encountered problems with matching funds coming through, and some nonprofit grantees have been forced to contribute their own money to match the initial…

Community colleges are often viewed as the gateway to higher education as well as institutions that can rapidly prepare students to enter the workforce. Yet, in spite of widespread acclaim for their effectiveness and success, community colleges have done very little to garner volunteer and financial support from their alumni. Admittedly, many…

The first piece of educational legislation in the American colonies divides neatly into two parts: a local school funding policy that is familiar as the basis of current public school funding in the United States; and a preamble that identifies Satan as the enemy of the community and the justification for common schools. In this article, the…

The Common Core State Standards' emphasis on informational text arose in part from research suggesting that employers and college instructors found students weak at comprehending technical manuals, scientific and historical journals, and other texts pivotal to work in those arenas. The common core's vision of informational text includes literary…

In Kyrgyzstan, the breakup of the USSR raised many issues related to equity and fairness in education, one of which is the distribution of public funds to support scholarship admissions to higher education institutions. After 1992, public institutions could begin to charge tuition fees, but as a legacy of the USSR, Kyrgyzstan continues providing…

Context: The 2008 financial crisis had a far-reaching impact on nearly every sector of the economy. As unemployment increased so did the uninsured. Already operating on a slim margin and poor payer mix, many critical access hospitals are facing a tough road ahead. Purpose: We seek to examine the increasing impact of uncompensated care on the…

For the last decade, in districts big and small, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has emerged as the largest private funder of educational efforts. This began with an initiative around small schools in the early to mid-2000s, mostly abandoned now, and has gained traction in the past few years in areas such as teacher evaluation, the Common…