Bottom-up reform as a policy strategy for decades has faltered in implementation. This article starts from the premise that these disappointing results stem from researchers' and practitioners' almost exclusive focus on implementation in schools or on what some call "the bottom" of hierarchical education systems but not shifts in policy…

The Education Commission of the States (ECS) 1994 National Forum and Annual Meeting was used as an opportunity to host a special Asian/Pacific/North American Dialogue conference on education policy. The purpose of this meeting was to discuss how educational practice and innovation in the Asia-Pacific nations could inform education reform and…

Participants in the "Beyond the Looking Glass" Conference established a set of objectives for each of the three teacher education constituencies: practice, policy, and research. The teacher education continuum of preservice, induction, and inservice served as one dimension of a framework for structuring dialogue, discussion, and…

This document contains three papers from a seminar conducted by the Universities Association for Continuing Education (UACE) on the theme of reading the Dearing report, "Higher Education in the Learning Society," which was released by the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education in the United Kingdom in July 1997. "What…

This discussion paper is from the Adult Learners Week National Seminar on Lifelong Learning Policy (Canberra, Australia, September 1999) that identified a number of ideas about how to foster national policy development on lifelong learning. It consists of three sections. Part 1 contains "A National Lifelong Learning Policy for…

Progress made by African governments toward improving their educational policies is described in this collection of papers, which were presented at a conference cosponsored by the World Bank and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Since the mid-1980s, several educational policy adjustment programs have been initiated in…

A synthesis is presented of the outcomes of the "Beyond the Looking Glass" Conference which brought together educational practitioners, policy makers, and researchers to make concrete suggestions for what should be done to improve the conditions, processes, and effects of teacher education. Three major points of agreement formed the…

In November 1997, Washington University and the Parents as Teachers National Center hosted a forum on how to apply neuroscience research to the field of education. The forum focused primarily on language acquisition in young children, which is fundamental to early learning and development and to later school success. The 110 participants included…

An invitation-only seminar was held on January 20, 1983 to share knowledge, concerns, and ideas on the implications of cable and satellite for social action and educational broadcasting. An introduction by John Cain noted that, although the primary seminar focus was cable and satellite, other important developments could be equally important,…

The gathering reported in this document provided an opportunity for black elected and appointed officials to join in framing the discussions and debates which will be engaging the attention of the nation in this election year. The papers are written on timely issues that are critical to black Americans and that urgently need to be brought to the…

Discussions during a seminar, whose participants came from North America and Europe, on trends and problems in the role of women in higher education are summarized. (MSE)

Following the keynote address on the importance of planning and the changing style of management in colleges and universities, various prepared papers developed the meeting theme of using technology in college and university planning. William Massey described the development and use of a computer model for strategic planning at Stanford. Edmund…

A discussion of the issues addressed in a conference on the new eleventh and twelfth grade curriculum for Victoria (Australia) focuses on political aspects of curricular and educational change and policy formation. Implications for research on the social context within which educational policy is made are examined. (MSE)

Eleven papers from an Australian Technical and Further Education (TAFE) conference are included: "The TAFE System and the Training Reform Agenda" (Gregor Ramsey) raises issues to keep the impetus going for national system improvement and development. "Towards the Best of Both Worlds: Models for Governance of TAFE Colleges" (Ian…

Knowledge and learning are becoming increasingly central to work and everyday life at the close of the 20th century. This document examines the potential for creating a new match between the demand for and the supply of new forms of learning. It draws on a range of recent Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) work and summarizes…