When Ghana became independent in 1957 it had one of the most developed education systems in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Over the next forty years its education system expanded to provide places for most, but not all, of its children. Since the education reforms of the late 1980s enrolments have grown steadily; this contrasts with some SSA countries…

Silent exclusion, when children register and attend school but learn little, is a critical feature of educational access in South Africa. Several international studies (e.g. TIMMS, SACMEQ) have shown that despite high levels of investment, South African schools perform poorly in relation to other countries at similar levels of income. Equitable…

The article discusses the entry of standardised measurement into the educational systems of Sweden and Germany and the processes of shape-shifting associated with this process. In the first part of the article, we investigate how standardised measurement challenged existing ways of conceiving education in Sweden and Germany during the first half…

This paper presents new evidence from national contextualized school performance data showing that, after taking into account those factors known to affect pupil achievement, state-maintained Catholic schools in England appear to be more academically effective than similar non-Catholic institutions. Using an American analysis of the nature of…

The landmark Civic Mission of Schools report of 2003 laid out an argument for the role of schools in promoting youth civic engagement and presented a range of promising ideas and practices to accomplish that. In this study we describe the civic engagement outcomes that a large, diverse urban school district has chosen to promote in its students.…

Many universities rely on a committee approach to assessment in which a group of faculty, staff, and administrators is tapped to provide guidance for assessment projects on behalf of various university programs or departments or the entire university. However, other organizational approaches to achieving strong programs of assessment are…

This article explores the relationship between charter school racial composition, school environments, and student achievement. We offer an original framework for understanding school context and its influence on schooling outcomes. We conclude that policymakers could better attend to the persistent educational inequality that has shaped U.S.…

The combined effects of standards-based reforms and accountability demands arising from recent technological and economic changes, say Tom Corcoran and Megan Silander, are requiring high schools to accomplish something they have never been required to do--ensure that substantially all students achieve at a relatively high level. Meeting that…

The international literature provides little in-depth analysis of distance education and e-learning activities, achievements, and challenges in Turkish higher education other than the country's mega-university, Anadolu. This paper examines the development of, and lessons to be learned from, such undertakings by three pioneers--two regular state…

In the coming period, the main task for China's higher education system is to improve the quality of education, and the key to improving the quality of education is to improve the quality of teaching. Teaching evaluations are a critical measure for improving the quality of teaching. The work of evaluating teaching at institutions of higher…

China started up pilot projects for the evaluation of teaching work at regular higher education institutions (HEIs) in 1994, and, beginning in 2003, the Ministry of Education (MOE) formally set up a system of cyclical teaching evaluation. Among the 592 undergraduate colleges and universities that were listed in the plan for the first round of…

This paper reviews the achievements of the first cycle of undergraduate teaching evaluation at institutions of higher education in China. Existing problems are identified, and suggestions are made for corresponding reforms for improving the standard and quality of China's undergraduate teaching evaluation.

The implementation of standards-based accountability (SBA) interventions aimed at improving school performance often focuses on the testing component, at the expense of capacity building. This was the case in South Africa when a SBA programme was instituted by government in 2000, which was accompanied by substantial rises in senior certificate…

European policy-makers hope that by 2010 tertiary education in European countries will be "connected" and become the much sought for European Higher Education Area. The reforms currently unfolding will modernize the daily practices of European higher education institutions. From transferability of degrees, employing a credit-based system…

This article presents a reflective report on a project aiming to strengthen educators and improve early childhood education in Guinea-Bissau--one of the poorest countries on the African continent, where preschool teachers have no training and have to face several ongoing difficulties. Helping these Guinea-Bissau teachers to focus on curriculum…