Jaschik's January 2009 article, "Assessing Assessment," describes initiatives designed to extend and broaden nascent assessment of college students learning. In the post-Spellings era of No Child Left Behind, many responded to the continuing discussion, "Why now?" He reports on two organizations, the National Institute for…

Policies that shift the costs of higher education from the taxpayer to the university student or graduate are increasingly popular, yet they have not been subjected to a thorough normative analysis. This paper provides a critical survey of the standard arguments that have been used in the public debate on higher education funding. These arguments…

Contemporary educational leaders should realize that America's political system of governance is not particularly democratic in the sense that the people rule. While popular elections occur in the U.S., participation rates by citizens are notoriously low, particularly at the local level. In very practical terms, the U.S. is less of a democratic…

Recent scholarship has suggested that: "A Nation at Risk" had put education on the national agenda," that it "catapulted education near to the top of the national political agenda," and that it started "an ambitious and well-publicized elementary and secondary education reform ... that has already lasted for more than a quarter of a century." The…

This paper seeks to specifically focus on the evolution of civil rights case law and legislation as it pertains to educating students with disabilities, specifically the often implemented but poorly understood Section 504 provisions. The purpose of this paper is to examine historical influences that precipitated the implementation of Section 504…

The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation's long and deep immersion in Ohio education policy, particularly in the charter-school realm, includes a half decade of direct experience as "authorizer" of several charters. Initially, the Ohio Department of Education (ODE) was chief authorizer of charter schools in the Buckeye State. After the state…

Most members of the National Association of Scholars worry about the politicization of the university. Academia gives undue preference to racial minorities in student admissions and faculty appointments. Teaching and research is often slanted toward minority grievances and Third World claims against the United States. However, critics have largely…

This article explores the socio-economic and political factors which have contributed to the rapid expansion of education in the public universities in Kenya and how it has impacted on the quality of education in these institutions. It mainly focuses on the response to insatiable public demands for university education in the country as well as…

It would be wrong for the United States to provide universal prekindergarten education for three reasons. First, the overwhelming majority of three- and four-year-olds already have access to various forms of preschool. Adding a publicly financed program would be costly and unnecessary. Second, a universal program still would not reach the neediest…

This paper explores the voices of elementary children in public schools. Three databases were used including (a) interviews with 25 elementary students, (b) drawings and writings created by 225 third through sixth-grade students about their high stakes testing experiences, and (c) observations in two first-grade classrooms. The data demonstrate…

The sociology of education in New Zealand, as in other countries, is affected by the dilemma inherent to the discipline, namely: is it a sociology "of" education or a sociology "for" education? In this article I analyse three factors in which the dilemma is played out: "cultural oppositionism" in the indigenous…

Objective: The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is generally viewed from an ethical perspective, specifically for its influence and impact on our ethos and the place of children in society. A recent ground-breaking report prepared by The African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) shows conceptually and empirically how the CRC can be used as a…

Objective: The aim of this article is to revisit the subject of the implementation of the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in Africa. Specifically, the article is an update to a previous article titled "Implementing the 1989 United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child in sub-Saharan Africa: The Overlooked…

This paper explores the introduction of market-oriented reforms into school-based education in England and Finland. The contexts into which reforms were introduced differed, with a fully comprehensive system being in place in Finland but not in England; the motives were also different; and different trajectories have since been followed. Whilst…

This paper examines the nature and socio-political functions of Hong Kong's "Chinese history curriculum" during colonialism and since decolonization and argues that these functions have resulted in a curriculum characterized by rote-learning and geared towards social control. Students are initiated into the traditional, orthodox view of…