Examines causes, strategies, and dynamics of U.S. excellence-era educational reforms, assessing economic, social, and political reform pressures. Examines major governmental, professional, citizen, and market policies promulgated across three promising, if problematic, reform periods characterized as intensification, restructuring, and reformation…

Discusses how English/language-arts teachers can actively teach students to use a socially critical lens for thinking. Considers three modes of teaching this. Discusses how, once students have a least 10 notebook entries focused on social issues, "noticings," and questions, they should be able to reread their notebooks for themes that have…

Fearing security problems, a congressional committee on Chinese espionage recommends that foreign students and other foreign nationals be barred from using supercomputers at national laboratories unless they first obtain export licenses from the federal government. University officials dispute the data on which the report is based and find the…

A small, well-regarded Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) program that finances innovations in higher education has resisted a push by Congress to influence which institutions should receive grants. Its new round of awards includes only one of 11 institutions suggested by Congress. (MSE)

Illustrates that China has been undergoing an unprecedented rapidity of change. Discusses the high unemployment rates, job markets, reform movements, differences in economic equality, the role of the National People's Congress, and the changing political climate. Reveals that freedom is subtly beginning to permeate the lives of Chinese citizens.…

Explores issues concerning representation, training, guidelines, and parent representative roles to determine how Mexican-American parents serving on an elementary school advisory council were involved in school decision-making. Parents' role may be minor, due to factors (like staff assumptions) resulting in unequal knowledge, respect, and…

Presents a lesson that: (1) explores how Stephen Decatur's mansion reflected the importance that the politically ambitious once placed on being in close proximity to sites of authority; and (2) examines Decatur's duel with Commodore Barron in 1820 in order to illustrate how "gentlemen" handled conflicts that compromised their sense of…

Urban governing regime theory holds that cities are governed by ongoing coalitions of local economic and political actors who, in processes more complex than once thought, work to achieve particular ends, particularly but not exclusively economic. The theory is summarized, implications for urban universities and leaders are examined, and the…

Schools and districts are most vulnerable to censorship challenges when they fail to establish sound, equitable policies and procedures or to honor those they have. Schools should promote an honest, consistent flow of information; insist on an instructionally sound media-selection rationale; and develop clear policies, procedures, and criteria for…

Identifies market and nonmarket returns to education over graduates' life cycle, as well as social benefit externalities. Considers most recent developments in measuring and evaluating these returns, relating them to costs. The capacity to finance lifelong learning depends on identification and measurement capacity and political processes. (149…

Faculty fellowships, designed to foster individual achievement, are in trouble as doubts emerge about individual efficacy in a global environment that requires teamwork and collaboration. They have become politicized, divided by conflicts over criteria. If they are to be renewed, the dominance of research over teaching and service must be…

The report of the American Association of University Professors' Committee C on College and University Teaching, Research, and Publication extends discussion of faculty workload issues by examining external attempts to legislate and regulate the way in which faculty in public higher education institutions distribute their work. Focus is on…

Maintains that in order to educate students to join the informed citizenry they must first develop their political identity through learning base knowledge concepts, such as the political continuum where students learn their political affiliations. Proceeds with a discussion on how students can apply this knowledge through participatory activities…

The Nordic tradition of folkeoplysning (Denmark, Norway) or folkbildning (Sweden) is a form of adult education--"people's enlightenment"--linked to the emergence of democracy. Differing social, political, and cultural emphases attached to "folk"/"people" in various European languages have implications for the role of…

This article explores the new conservative assault on the university and the relative silence on the part of progressives in response to this challenge. In part, this apparent retreat is a consequence of the vulnerabilities and anxieties of workers in the academy that result from the ongoing corporatization of the university as well as the…