The CATO Institute's Policy Analysis "They Spend WHAT? The Real Cost of Public Schools" contends that the figures most commonly associated with spending on K-12 public education do not include all relevant expenditures. It also cites survey evidence suggesting that voters underestimate the cost of education and, when presented with a higher…

In 2002, voters in Florida approved a constitutional amendment limiting class sizes in public schools to 18 students in the elementary grades, 22 students in middle grades, and 25 in high school grades. Analyzing statewide achievement data for school districts from 2004-2006 and for schools in 2007, this study purports to find that "mandated…

Background/Context: The United States is currently undergoing a period of unprecedented immigration, with the majority of new arrivals coming from Asia and Latin America, not Europe. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (APIs) represent the fastest growing racial group in the United States, and schools are again being asked to socialize newcomer…

Distance education is fast becoming an elemental part of the fabric of academic life on many campuses, and this has implications for existing reward structures for faculty at these institutions. In addition, distance education is becoming an essential feature of the outreach mission of a number of departments at college and university campuses.…

This article presents a horizontal perspective on the dynamics of governance sites currently active for the European of Knowledge and places the Bologna process in this wider European level context. It introduces two dynamics of change in political organisation: (a) institutional differentiation and specialisation and (b) the interaction between…

Since the beginning of the 20th century, integration with the Western world has been a determining driver of higher education policies, as well as many other policy areas in Turkey. Becoming a signatory country of the Bologna Process in 2001 brought a new impulse to the higher education policies in this direction. The Bologna Process reforms…

The open method of coordination (OMC) within the Lisbon strategy is discussed in terms of a European Space for Education and "programme ontology". The focus is on indicators and the European dimension, and how they "work" in the forming of contents and identities in this European Space for Education. The OMC is analyzed in…

Government student loan schemes typically have implicit interest rate subsidies which, while these are a cost to taxpayers, they have the benefit of diminishing repayment burdens for graduates. Our goal is to illustrate the extent of both interest rate subsidies and repayment burdens with respect to Thailand's Student Loans Fund (SLF), using…

With the onset of the Education for All (EFA) agenda in 1990, the international development community has seen new forms of international cooperation forming around the pledge for EFA. This paper analyzes a case study of activities and challenges of a civil society coalition, the Ghana National Education Campaign Coalition (GNECC), in pursuing the…

From the standpoint of a former journal editor and long-time professional, this commentary challenges the direction of the profession as demonstrated in this special section. The ongoing creation of more and more ethical constraints not only harms the profession but also loses sight of fundamental ethical principles.

In this article welfare systems and support networks are empirically analyzed to determine which generate the highest level of subjective well-being among retired persons. Propositions derived from support network theories and national welfare system typologies have been analyzed using causal models that indicate the influence of the various…

Since 1995 I have been engaged in consultancies and since 2001 in research dealing with the language of instruction policies in Africa. To what extent are the policies being implemented? What is the role of research and consultancy when it comes to language policy? What happens when researchers or consultants come up with recommendations which do…

Background/Context: In most judicial and social science debates about school desegregation, it is usually assumed that educational and social benefits, if significant, help establish a compelling purpose for school desegregation plans. Less thought has been given to whether the degree of benefits should factor into whether a plan is narrowly…

What will it take to bring about dramatic improvements in the performance of California's education system? The fact is, everyone does not know. California does not know how to collect the kind of educational data that would allow it to accurately measure the performance of schools and students, or to evaluate the effectiveness of different…

This study explores the notions of globalization as embodied in Japanese educational reforms. Modern institutional discourses of educational reform in Japan have shifted over time and all of these reform movements have been constructed by particular social and historical trajectories. Generally speaking, it has been taken for granted that the…