This article presents an analytic approach to assessing the relationship between policy advocacy activities and outcomes for discrete episodes of advocacy, using a holistic array of factors that affect the relationship between advocacy and policy change. The factors pertain to not only advocacy organizational structure and strategies, but also the…

In 2004, the government of Punjab, Pakistan introduced a conditional cash assistance program for girls attending secondary schools. We exploit variations in exposure to the program across cohorts and regions to estimate the long run effects of the program on women's marriage and fertility decisions, maternal healthcare utilization and the health…

Faced with accountability pressures and limited resources, education policymakers make difficult choices regarding school curricula. In recent years, studies have documented a decreased emphasis in arts and humanities instruction. One potential way for schools to fill this gap includes partnering with arts and cultural organizations to provide…

The status of English as a global language has played a significant role in contemporary language education policies across the world. In East Asia, the hegemony of English has been reflected in a number of central governments' policies of recruiting native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) to participate in English language education. This paper…

On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). The law had a very simple mission: kick-start an economic recovery through strategic investment. Deep within the law were a number of key education initiatives, including Race to the Top (RTT), which was a way to invest in the nation's education system…

This article reviews the education reform and development footprints in China by analyzing four key education policy documents in the past three decades. The conclusion is that the reform and development of China's educational establishment have provided excellent support for the operations of China's political and economic systems. The reality is…

This paper examines the competitive effects of a unique school choice program implemented in the late 1990s, Wisconsin's open enrollment program, which allows families to send their children to schools outside their home district. In contrast to other school choice programs, districts not only face negative consequences from losing students and…

Class-size reduction (CSR) mandates presuppose that resources provided to reduce class size will have a larger impact on student outcomes than resources that districts can spend as they see fit. I estimate the impact of Florida's statewide CSR policy by comparing the deviations from prior achievement trends in districts that were required to…

Conditional cash transfer programs (CCTs) have two main objectives: reducing poverty and increasing the human capital of children. To reach these objectives, transfers are given to poor households conditioned on investments in their children's education, health, and nutrition. Targeting mechanisms used by CCTs have been generally successful in…

Smaller universities may produce research which is on a par with larger, elite establishments. This is confirmed by a recently developed mathematical model, supported by data from British and French higher education research-evaluation exercises. The detailed nature of the UK system, in particular, allows quantification of the notion of critical…

Class-size reduction (CSR) mandates presuppose that resources provided to reduce class size will have a larger impact on student outcomes than resources that districts can spend as they see fit. I estimate the impact of Florida's statewide CSR policy by comparing the deviations from prior achievement trends in districts that were required to…

The purpose of this study was to provide insight regarding the impact that the alternative to suspension program Achievement Character Excellence (ACE) has on the students who are placed there. The study utilized four achievement indicators to track the level of improvement of students after they were placed in the ACE program and after they were…

My dissertation examines the effectiveness of three policy choices in meeting socio-economic goals. The first analyzes the impact of public health education and poverty relief on child mortality in the early twentieth century, when infant and child mortality rates in the United States were startlingly high. During the 1920s, the rates dropped…

In 2002, voters in Florida approved a constitutional amendment limiting class sizes in public schools to 18 students in the elementary grades, 22 students in middle grades, and 25 in high school grades. Analyzing statewide achievement data for school districts from 2004-2006 and for schools in 2007, this study purports to find that "mandated…

Objective: In 1997, Michigan's Family Independence Agency piloted case management procedures designed to expedite permanency and improve services to children in foster care. Method: A 3-year evaluation examined outcomes in nine pilot and nine comparison counties to determine if children in the pilot counties achieved permanency, either returned…