Charter schools are publicly funded schools that have considerable independence from public school districts in their curriculum development and staffing decisions, and their enrollments have increased substantially over the past two decades. Charter schools are changing public and private school enrollment patterns across the United States. This…

In January Rep. John Kline (R-MN), chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, released two draft discussion bills to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, or ESEA. The Student Success Act and the Encouraging Innovation and Effective Teachers Act would increase state and local control over education. In the…

Teacher absenteeism is expensive, disrupts the continuity of educational activities, and results in students attending classes with less qualified substitute teachers. The purpose of this study was to analyze the relationships among teacher variables, teacher absenteeism, student achievement, and school district policy governing teacher…

Mandates that follow from the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, 2002) led to changes to curriculum and classroom instruction. Teachers felt pressured to alter their curriculum and instructional practices. To ensure that students receive a quality education, teacher perceptions of instructional assessment and curriculum is of paramount concern,…

The purpose of this brief, the third in a series released by the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), is twofold: (1) To describe the emerging themes from the Lumina MSI-Models of Success initiative, and (2) to examine the context of remedial education and the discourse centered on the policy, practice, and role of postsecondary settings…

Cross-curricular work in schools across the United Kingdom generally involves the use of a cross-curricular dimension or theme that spans the work of several subject teachers. The limitations of this type of curriculum planning have been noted in the research literature both within the United Kingdom and across Europe. The research reported here…

This article presents an assessment of the impact and implications of the international mobilities operating in the national public policy environment. In fact, patterns of transformations that take place in national higher education systems are generating diverse and complex outcomes in different countries, in ways that may preclude a simple…

Since the break up of the USSR, its former republics have seen the emergence and rapid expansion of an examinations industry that was, to all intents and purposes, unknown in Soviet times. New national assessment agencies have been established and been charged with, amongst other things, developing high-stakes exams to replace the diverse and…

One of the US Department of Education's key priorities is turning around the nation's persistently low-achieving schools, yet exactly how to identify low-performing schools is a task left to state policy makers, and a myriad of definitions have been utilized. In addition, exactly how to recognize when a school begins to turn around is not well…

This paper considers an alternative teacher certification pathway known as Teach for Australia (TFA) that is currently operating in the Australian state of Victoria. A discursive approach informed by critical theory is used in the paper to critically examine the specific case of TFA as an alternative teacher certification pathway charged with…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to assess the state of affairs of intercultural bilingual education (IBE) policies in Argentina. IBE encompasses educational proposals designed to address the specific needs of ethnolinguistic minorities. Design/methodology/approach: The article is divided into three parts and methodologically analyzes…

This policy profile on education in Denmark is part of the new Education Policy Outlook series, which will present comparative analysis of education policies and reforms across OECD countries. Building on the substantial comparative and sectorial policy knowledge base available within the OECD, the series will result in a biennial publication…

The main goal of this study is to examine the politics of the development of intercultural education policy in Cyprus. More specifically, it examines the content of intercultural policies developed by the state and particularly the Ministry of Education and Culture. In addition, the study focuses on the challenges that may impede the development…

Proposition 209 banned the use of racial preferences in admissions at public colleges in California. We analyze unique data for all applicants and enrollees within the University of California (UC) system before and after Prop 209. After Prop 209, graduation rates increased by 4.4%. We present evidence that certain institutions are better at…

Data-driven decision making has become increasingly important in education. Policymakers require educators to use data to inform practice. Although the policy emphasis is growing, what has not increased is attention to building human capacity around data use. Educators need to gain data literacy skills to inform practice. Although some…