This response identifies several strengths of the article, "Pushing the Boundaries: What Youth Organizers at Boston's Hyde Square Task Force Have to Teach Us about Civic Engagement" and draws connections to recent developments in sibling fields, including social and emotional learning and internet activism. These developments offer ideas…

Teacher preparation and licensing are constantly under attack from both national and state policy makers. The extraordinary reporting requirements imposed on university-based teacher preparation programs through Title II of the Higher Education Act and the promotion of "alternative routes" to teacher licensure by the federal government…

In federal arts education policy, supporting special events means that the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) promotes visiting artists in the schools or partnerships between schools and professional presenting organizations. An ideal NEA, however, subordinates that to the larger task of promoting continuous local funding for sequential,…

This paper examines the discourses framing citizenship education in Ukraine and Russia from "perestroika" to the present and assesses the role of the Council of Europe in promoting democratic citizenship in both countries. We argue that there is a tension between the discourses of active citizenship, strongly disseminated by…

In this brief rejoinder to Professor St.Pierre, the author focuses on two points: the purposes, origins, and role of the National Academy of Sciences (and its constituent units); and the importance of rigorous evidence in the pursuit of education policy and reform.

To address chronic unemployment more effectively, social workers can describe the problem accurately, collect data by type of unemployment (frictional, structural, cyclical and chronic), document negative human effects, emphasize economic consequences, document the unequal burden on nonwhites, and lobby for long-term employment policy…

The Bureau of Labor Statistics assumed major responsibility for the Current Population Survey in 1959. Since then there have been increases in sample size, changes in and additions of questions, and refinements in the household survey's concept, but in general, the basic concepts have remained the same since the survey's beginnings in 1940. (JOW)

Strategies for increasing evaluation research leverage are reviewed. Alignment of evaluation research with regulatory bodies with authority to suspend public program expenditures is advocated. Several likely obstacles in the development of the regulatory evaluation model are anticipated and addressed. (Author/RL)

Critizes the public child care policy with regard to adoption services through the story of "Joey", a black child in his teens. Shortly after his birth, Joey was sent by his teenage mother to a city agency for adoption and until now no real effort has been made to place him in a permanent home. (Author/MP)

Four educators agree the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) should ensure quality of teacher education, change and quantify standards, and increase its power. They oppose both NCATE accreditation of state departments of education instead of education programs and standardized teacher preparation programs. (PB)

Advocates wider recognition of joint custody and coparenting of children after divorce or separation, reviews pertinent legal and other related literature, identifies indications and contraindications for joint custody and coparenting, and briefly discusses implications for social workers. (Author/MP)

If their money and other assets are used effectively, voluntary organizations have an impact far beyond their proportionate size. The United States needs effective governments and a strong voluntary sector, but it will have neither if national leaders do not understand the differences in their functions. (Author/JOW)

Discusses the role of the State Approving Agency (SAA) in assisting states with their Veterans Education Programs that originated with the G.I. Bill. SAAs continue to help states by providing monitoring services and advising or consulting as needed. (JOW)

Examines the history and function of the relationship between social work and day care in the United States. (CM)

Accountants have urged "harmonization" of standards between the Governmental Accounting Standards Board and the Financial Accounting Standards Board, recommending similar reporting of like transactions. However, varying display of similar accounting events does not necessarily indicate disharmony. The potential for problems because of…