This study examines the impact of high-stakes, large-scale, standardized literacy testing on youth who have failed the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test. Interviews with youth indicate that the unintended impact of high-stakes testing is more problematic than policy makers and educators may realize. In contrast to literacy policy's aims to…

In 1978, Deng Xiaoping declared that China's future depended on "gaige kaifang" (reform and opening up to the West). By any standard, China has reformed its economic system and prospered handsomely by integrating into the world economy. With less fanfare, China has taken steps to restructure its political system and committed substantial…

Background/Context: Recent research has demonstrated the potential for teacher professional development to enhance teacher learning, improve instruction, and increase student achievement. Nevertheless, research examining the relationship between state and local policies and teachers' participation in professional development is sparse. This…

Beginning with the passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), language-based educational policy in the United States has shifted toward an emphasis on English language acquisition and away from an emphasis on native language assistance. The English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement Act clearly mandates English…

In this article, we examine the contradictions and lack of consistency between various levels of discourse relating to Roma educational policies. Policy-makers have claimed that political interventions would positively impact the progress of Roma. However, the results have been mixed. We argue here that teachers need to re-evaluate their roles as…

Women represent an increasingly large majority of undergraduate students, currently comprising 57% of total U.S. undergraduate enrollment. To address this gap between women and men undergraduates, some institutions have developed admissions policies to yield more men. This study examines the key issues the U.S. Supreme Court might use when…

The latest draft of proposed common academic standards offers more-detailed expectations of what students should know and be able to do by the end of high school in math and language arts, but also notes that some decisions about curricula should be left to individual states and schools. The new version, released for public comment last week, is…

Early years policy increasingly uses the concept of "citizenship" in relation to children in Australia and worldwide. This concept is used as a taken-for-granted idea; however, there is no singularly agreed-upon answer to the question of what "citizenship" means when used in relation to children, and what practical…

It is now over 10 years since the shootings at Columbine High School in April 1999. While Columbine was not the first school shooting in the United States, or the last, it remains the most important. For many people, but especially for parents, the name "Columbine" has become a one-word summation of fears and concerns about the condition…

Music education exists within a web of policies. Those most often identified by music teachers and professional associations are the policies imposed on the profession by governmental and regulatory bodies. Advocacy efforts to change policy are mostly directed toward these bodies. However, the practice of music education is perhaps more influenced…

This article presents a game theory analysis of legislating private education in China, based on set of primary and secondary documents related to this issue. The article argues that shaping educational legislation is a dynamic, repeated game of negotiation, cooperation, and/or competition on multiple occasions among various interested actors,…

A controversial theory much in the news lately claims that affirmative action is often unfair to the very students it is intended to help. Called the "mismatch" theory, it suggests that underrepresented minority students are more likely to leave science, math, and engineering when, because of affirmative action, they attend colleges for which they…

This article analyses the ways in which policy entrepreneurs have recently influenced physical education (PE) policy and practice in England and Scotland and discusses some of the implications this might have for students' learning opportunities within comprehensive schools in future years. And, while considerations of this sort raise a plethora…

Climate change is only one factor driving growing numbers of cities throughout the globe to reconsider conventional approaches to electricity generation and use. In the U.S., this momentum is incorporating a shift away from centralized, supply-side approaches reliant on fossil fuels and nuclear power, toward more distributed, flexible, and cleaner…

The $787-billion economic-stimulus legislation that President Obama signed into law this week contains large sums of money for students and researchers. But the final version of the plan excludes billions of dollars that Congress had considered giving to various higher-education programs. The author's assessment is that the law, as enacted, will…