In "Market-Based Pay Reform for Public School Teachers"--a paper presented at the National Center on Performance Incentives research to policy conference in February--Michael Podgursky, professor of economics at the University of Missouri, examines the effects and unintended consequences of the current compensation system for teachers in…

This document reports on the findings of an NSF-funded conference (STEM ACT) on the alternative certification of science teachers. The conference explored the issues that have arisen in science education as a result of the proliferation of alternative certification programs in the United States, and to identify the research that needs to be done…

Perhaps no school reform has generated as much interest and controversy in recent years as the proposal to have parents select their children's schools. Opponents of school choice fear that rolling back the government's role will lead to profit-driven financial scandals, sectarianism, and increased class and racial isolation. School choice…

Across the United States, nearly 50 million students are served by 96,000 public schools. Federal policymakers cannot be expected to diagnose the diverse learning needs of these students and to craft solutions adequate to meet all of them. Four decades, eight reauthorizations of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and expenditure of…

This report provides the latest available data and analysis of California's teaching workforce and the challenges confronting the state's educators and policy-makers. While the report finds progress toward reducing the shortage of teachers, it raises concerns about low student achievement and the implications for the state's ability to meet the…

Reading disability and illiteracy are among the most pressing educational issues facing the United States today. At least 40 percent of America's fourth-graders are unable to read at grade level and a similar proportion of adults read at the lowest two levels of prose literacy. Here, the authors present an unflinching examination of the science…

This report discusses the State of California's fiscal condition and guides the reader through numerous factors that will influence State spending on higher education in the coming fiscal year. It also offers insight and observations on challenging policy decisions the Governor, the Legislature, and higher education leaders face in the coming…

We present the first empirical assessment of the U.K. Labour government's program of public management reform. This reform program is based on rational planning, devolution and delegation, flexibility and incentives, and enhanced choice. Measures of these variables are tested against external and internal indicators of organizational performance.…

When policies are interpreted as discourses, issues of identity become significant in policy making. In this article I want to problematise the authoritative regulatory discourse of policies on international students in the United States (US) particularly after 9/11/2001 and how they maintain an essentialising notion of identity. Starting from…

There is a world-wide trend to expect individuals to pay more of the cost of their higher education. This is also the case in South Africa since public funding of higher education decreased from 0.86% of GDP in 1986 to only 0.68% in 2005. Higher education institutions were forced to increase tuition fees to compensate for this "loss"…

A major task of South Africa's new government in 1994 was to design a more racially equitable education system. This article evaluates progress towards this goal using three concepts of equity: equal treatment by race, equal educational opportunity, and educational adequacy. The authors find that the country moved quickly towards a race-blind…

This study examines how charter school advocates and district administrators in a suburban US school district work in concert, although not in unison, to create a public charter school that reinforces the interests of White, economically advantaged families. Drawing on ethnographic data, interviews, census data and charter school documents, we…

Thirty-five to 45 percent of low-income American households do not possess a bank account. This statistic coupled with claims of price gouging by check cashers has prompted government intervention. The author finds that state legislation requiring banks to offer low-cost accounts slightly decreases the number of low-income minority unbanked…

School mental health (SMH) programs and services have grown progressively in the United States in the past two decades, related to increased acknowledgement of their advantages and prominent federal initiatives (e.g., No Child Left Behind Act President's New Freedom Initiative; 20(13). Nonetheless, SMH is an emerging and tenuously supported field…

This article discusses the changes in higher education in Russia and the role of international organizations--the World Bank and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)--in promoting education reforms in this country. The connection between recent government policies and those of international organizations providing both…