Few people have been more involved in shaping postwar U.S. education reforms--or dissented from some of them more effectively--than Chester Finn. Assistant secretary of education under Ronald Reagan, and an aide to politicians as different as Richard Nixon and Daniel Moynihan, Finn has also been a high school teacher, an education professor, a…

The number of overweight and obese children and adolescents has reached epidemic proportions, and recent federal surveys show that most school meals do not meet federal nutrition guidelines. Accordingly, there is growing interest in the nutritional quality of foods available in U.S. schools--and in the role of the government in helping to make…

Globalization is putting increasing pressure on jobs in the United Kingdom, particularly among less skilled activities. The European response through the Lisbon Strategy has been diffuse, while UK policy appears much more focused, concentrating on the need to raise education and skill levels. The present paper examines the transition towards a…

Using policy discourse analysis, the author analyzed 21 diversity action plans issued at 20 U.S. land-grant universities over a five-year period to identify images of diversity and the problems and solutions represented in diversity action plans. Discourses of marketplace, excellence, managerialism, and democracy emerged and served to construct…

Since the 1960s The Netherlands has produced policy to combat educational inequalities stemming from the social milieu and ethnicity of pupils. This policy has evolved from local to central policy and back again to a decentralised level. The initial focus on disadvantaged native Dutch pupils in big cities has shifted to immigrant groups and--at…

As Congress considers reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 a fundamental question in the debate is whether to continue to increase federal government management authority over education or to restore citizen ownership of America's schools. Testing requirements in NCLB are having unintended consequences: by requiring…

Across the nation, takeovers of schools or entire systems by mayors, state legislatures, or control boards have come as a result of increasing pressure to improve low performing schools, particularly those in central cities serving disadvantaged or minority students. Citing a need for improvement in the city's schools, Antonio Villaraigosa…

It is difficult for families dealing with homelessness to enroll their children in school and ensure their daily attendance. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act gives homeless children and youth the right to enroll in school immediately, even if they do not have documents that are usually required for enrollment. The Individuals with…

By June 2007, at least 30 percent of the public school minority students residing in Hartford will have an educational experience with reduced isolation through three voluntary programs: (a) Interdistrict magnet schools; (b) Open Choice (also known as Project Choice); and (c) Interdistrict cooperative grants. Project Choice is a voluntary program…

Facilities that self-police under the Environmental Protection Agency's Audit Policy are eligible for reduced penalties on disclosed violations. This paper investigates whether self-policing has additional consequences; in particular, whether self-policing reduces future enforcement activity. Using data on U.S. hazardous waste enforcement and…

This paper draws on data from secondary sources and in-depth interviews to explore the question: What is the impact of policy on teaching, learning, assessment and inclusion in Adult and Community Learning (ACL) "Skills for Life" (SfL) provision? In particular, it focuses on the government's use of five policy-steering…

Many nations, including the United States, have had to make difficult decisions that often affect educational equity. This article addresses three controversial issues--parental contributions to public schools, student tracking, and testing practices--by comparing policies in South Africa, England, and China with those in the United States.

The new amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act became effective in July 2005 and contained a number of important changes to the current law. Some of the major changes regarding highly qualified teachers, alignment with the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, eligibility, the Individualized Education Program process, and…

Nearly every country suffers from dynamic inequality, since certain features of virtually all societies are responsible: variation in family background; variation in the quality of schooling; sometimes sharp differences in the treatment of boys and girls, or of racial and ethnic minorities, or of urban and rural residents. In addition, many…

Education reforms have affected schools and the educators who work in them. Using state-wide survey data from 1993 and 2003, this study examines how the work of school superintendents has been affected over a ten-year period by these reform initiatives, especially increased demands for accountability. The general message from our data is that…