The paper examines parental views regarding the implementation of Educational Legislation 113(I)/99 in Cyprus regarding the integration of children with special needs in the mainstream school. It is based on parental interviews which were taken in the course of a large research project regarding the implementation of the new legislation in primary…

This article focuses on in-service teacher training in Cyprus and points to the necessity for reorganisation of existing practices and reformulation of national policies within the framework of continuous professional development. Examination of this issue results from the need of the educational system to respond to the challenges of the European…

This paper provides a critical evaluation of the model of professional development elucidated within the Career Entry Development Profile and induction arrangements for newly qualified teachers (NQTs) in England. In addition, it outlines the findings from a small-scale study of NQTs' professional development during their first year of teaching.…

The Supreme Court has established that diversity is a compelling state interest with regard to student body diversity in the higher education context, namely medical school and law school. Many educators and higher education organizations view racial and ethnic diversity among faculty as an important educational objective. Faculty diversity is…

The paper presents a first assessment of the effects of changes in the Norwegian student support system, implemented in 2002-2003. Data have been drawn from NSELF, the Norwegian State Educational Loan Fund and from "Statistics Norway" (various years). Covering the period 2001-04, the data compare the number and composition of those…

The rise of accountability policies during the early 1990s coincided with an increase in the achievement gap between white and minority students, reversing decades of steady improvement in outcome equity. This article explores the policies that helped to reduce the achievement gap before 1990, the effects of the subsequent shift toward…

In this article, I discuss a Canadian public school controversy and Supreme Court of Canada decision involving competing stakeholder rights to freedom of religion, safety and equality. Policy considerations that allowed one group of stakeholders to express their constitutional rights raised concerns among other stakeholders. A policy vacuum and a…

Defining equity within the context of a diverse, multiracial, multiethnic, multilingual, and multicultural society, and one where social class strongly influences one's life chances is problematic. This chapter reexamines equity in an attempt to advance the discourse beyond the debate about strategies to close the achievement gap between White…

This book is the personal account of William Bennett who formerly served in the U.S. government as the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Secretary of Education, and Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The volume suggests what is right and what is wrong with education in the United States; discusses the…

Reflecting a variety of intellectual and disciplinary orientations, this volume examines major changes in educational development and reform and considers how such changes have been implemented in the past. The material addresses questions of governance, equity and multiculturalism, curriculum standards, school choice. The book has four parts.…

This report focuses on the shifting landscape of state roles in higher education and the public policy connections to quality undergraduate programs. The State Policy and College Learning project was initiated to generate state policies that would have a constructive impact on the efforts of colleges and universities to improve undergraduate…

This book details a study of policy from the perspective of Head Start staff and is written from the perspective of how staff adapted and interpreted program policies. Part 1 of the book describes the focus of the study and background information on Head Start, Hoover Community Action Corporation (study pseudonym), and Wood River Head Start (study…

This document is a collection of Education Commission of the States notes that address a wide array of education issues. The notes provide brief overviews of state legislation passed or pending on specific education issues. It analyzes such matters as performance-based accountability systems; state-level policies regarding accreditation in public…

This issue of "NERRC Focus" describes the activities of Vermont's Special Education Program and Fiscal Review Panel (the Panel), created by the Vermont Legislature in 1998, to study the delivery of special education and other support services in Vermont school districts. The Panel's primary goal has been to review the programs and…

The National Postsecondary Education Cooperative (NPEC), with the support of the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics, was formed to develop ways to improve the utility of information for policy making at all levels and in all sectors of the postsecondary education enterprise. This report provides a model for…