This book consists of working papers presented at the national child care conference and is intended to rejuvenate interest in the child care agenda for the 1990s. The first paper addresses child care policy and its relationship to child and family poverty, and child care and its connection to economic and labor force strategies. The second paper…

This paper proposes a framework for developing a national rural development policy in Australia. Some common relevant misconceptions are that rural Australia and rural Australians are peripheral to the national economy and the nation's future, that farmers and farming communities are the alpha and omega of rural Australia, and that whatever is…

This paper examines the determinants of systemic education reform in the American states. Socioeconomic, political, and cultural variables are all found to affect the level of systemic education policy in each state. Unlike many studies of policy determinants, urbanization is negatively associated with this particular policy. The political factors…

In this policy analysis of affirmative action, four Asian Pacific American law professors make a case for affirmative action with a special focus on Asian Pacific Americans (APAs). It is asserted that affirmative action produces many benefits, such as reducing the harm of racism, promoting equal opportunity, and advancing racial justice. However,…

Reform of New Zealand schools has been ongoing since 1988, when the Task Force to Review Education Administration recommended devolution of managerial control, within national guidelines, for each of the country's 2,700 state school boards of trustees with a majority of elected parents' representatives. Reforms instituted since 1989 across all…

Intended to provide background information and preliminary options for the California Community Colleges' Commission on Innovation, this document describes the principles of Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) and describes policy options for implementation in the state's community colleges. Following introductory materials, the paper recommends…

Intended to provide background information and preliminary policy options for the California Community Colleges' Commission on Innovation, this document explores the cost and practical feasibility of delivering distance instruction using pre-recorded broadcasts. Following introductory materials detailing the Commission's charge, the paper suggests…

The United States currently spends a good deal more on education per student than most industrialized nations, yet testing shows that achievement has not kept pace with spending. Nevertheless, school administrators continue to press for greater federal spending and claim that reforms cannot be implemented otherwise.

The No Child Left Behind Act requires standards-based accountability for school districts and schools receiving Title I funds. A major component of this policy is to report whether districts and schools are making "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) based on their performance goals. This paper raises questions for rural schools using the…

Australian policy towards Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has historically been one of subjugation and acculturation. It wasn't until 1972 that a policy of self-determination for Aboriginal Australians (later to include Torres Strait Islanders) was introduced. The first year that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were…

This paper offers action concepts designed to be applied to achieve outcomes that benefit all college personnel in their attempts to fulfill their collective roles in strengthening the organizational structure of the college. NILIE (National Initiative for Leadership and Institutional Effectiveness) assesses the effectiveness of community college…

Several years after the passage of NCLB, there are persistently low-performing schools in every state that face increasingly strong consequences for failing to improve student achievement sufficiently. In particular, schools that fail to make AYP for five consecutive years must engage in restructuring to improve student learning. Districts have…

For the first time in the better part of a decade, the idea of making student loans "Income-Contingent" (often referred to as "ICR", which stands for Income-Contingent Repayment) is making a re-appearance on the Canadian policy scene. For those who have long favoured ICRs, this debate will be an opportunity to dust off their…

States have taken a variety of approaches in the development of their alternate assessments and the policies and procedures that support them. This has resulted not only in alternate assessments that differ from state to state in their characteristics, but also in variations in the characteristics and percentages of students who are targeted for…

This Commission for Higher Education document concerns the approval of the Policy for Delivering Degree Programs Through Distance Education Technology. It opens with the staff recommendation that the Commission approve the Policy, considering the recent technological developments altering distance education environments. The background information…