This article addresses the issue on school policy concerning holidays and outlines some steps schools can take to keep the children and their enrichment as the focus. In the United States, there are many kinds of holidays: religious, cultural, national, and sentimental. School calendars usually honor some of the most prominent of these. If the…

The U.S. Department of Education's latest move to grant more flexibility under the No Child Left Behind Act, this time aimed at helping schools that narrowly miss the law's requirement for high participation on standardized tests, was generally welcomed. The appetite for further adjustments appears to be growing. The new policy allows states to…

In November 2005, the BC Council on Admissions and Transfer launched a consultation, Recalibrating the BC Transfer System, motivated by significant changes in the BC post-secondary system over the last decade and concern that these changes had not resulted in concomitant adjustments in the structure of the BC Transfer System or the BC Transfer…

The authors evaluate the positions of the 2008 Presidential Primary Candidates, and rate the quality of information provided by their campaign websites. Personal insights on the issue are offered as well. (Contains 3 tables.) [This document was published by the Educational Policy Institute (EPI).]

This paper sets the scene for a collection of papers based on "The impact of policy on learning and inclusion in the learning and skills sector," a research project funded from January 2004 until July 2007 by the UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of their Teaching and Learning Research Programme (TLRP). We raise some…

In this paper we draw on concepts from policy sociology to analyse the new equity deal for schools in Queensland, Australia. We examine this "new deal" through an analysis of the language of "inclusion" and "educational risk" in key policy documents associated with a major reform of public education in Queensland. In…

This article explores why policy makers in England and Scotland responded so differently to the Clackmannanshire study on synthetic phonics. It suggests that a deeper understanding of the national and local policy contexts can explain Scotland's response. Analysis of the wider context of the Clackmannanshire initiative supports Moss and Huxford's…

Although past research has failed to establish a link between protest and policy change, we reexamine the relationship at the agenda-setting stage of policymaking. We assert that protestors compete for attention among lawmakers at the agenda-setting stage. An issue receives more attention when the frequency of protest activity around a particular…

Nanotechnology promises to amend an understanding of elemental properties, alter the basic techniques of manufacturing, and improve disease diagnosis. There is a disconnect among the positive predictions of scientists and researchers, the fears of public interest groups, and the developers of products. A new framework for evaluating the social…

To correspond to the Association for Educational Communication Technology (AECT) Code of Professional Ethics and the professional journal TechTrends' ethics columns, this paper provides empirical data regarding ethical issues associated with the use of instructional technology in design and training situations. In-depth interviews of 20…

Given the overt political nature of this topic, an additional theoretical postulate, the Triadic Theory of Power was also presented as another framework to conceptualize the external and internal forces which shape the formation of contemporary education policy. Predicated upon the scholarship of Nobel laureate James Q. Wilson, Andrew McFarland…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) requires states and the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) to define and determine whether schools are making adequate yearly progress (AYP) toward meeting the goal of 100 percent academic proficiency. To address tribes' needs for cultural preservation, NCLBA allows tribal groups to…

Public policy questions such as public funding for Catholic schools, the extent of government involvement in private education, and church-state relations in general are not unique to the United States. This article discusses Catholic education in Scotland, with a view to explaining the ongoing need for cooperation and goodwill in church-state…

This descriptive study provides a snapshot of teacher evaluation policies across a demographically diverse sample of districts in the Midwest Region. It aims to lay the groundwork for further research and inform conversations about current policies at the local, district, and state levels. Specifically, this study examines district evaluation…

New Zealand universities have undergone significant structural change accompanied by declining public funding and increasing demands for accountability in recent years. In 2000, one of the country's largest universities redirected resources and funding in a "repositioning" exercise that resulted in redundancies and other consequences…