This paper examines whether the implementation of the Bologna bachelor's + master's structure has been followed by an increase of university students from under-represented groups, and whether the Bologna structure has been accompanied by new forms of student mobility between Danish university institutions. Looking at student movements from…

Effective teaching practice focused on encouraging deep engagement helps all students learn and succeed. Considerable work by researchers and change agents, encouraged by national organizations such as the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Research Council, has promoted greater use of evidence-based educational practices, such as…

This paper discusses the change of educational governance by developing and using a theory of policy instrumentality. It is based on the policy instruments approach in political studies and on the cultural-historical activity theory. It is used to study the relationships and changes of policy instruments and objectives of a major school…

Providing an in-depth look at the processes, pitfalls, and successes that can emerge from major education reform efforts at the state level, this volume covers the full policy change cycle in the development and transformation of the Illinois principal preparation program. Offering perspectives from the major stakeholder groups involved in…

How educational leaders initiate and sustain change is often hotly debated by those inside and outside of the system. Given the many reform initiatives of the past 30 years, and the resulting changes public educators have made lurching from initiative to initiative, one must ask if public education has truly improved. The answer to why public…

In September 2011, the Association of American Universities launched a major initiative to improve undergraduate STEM education. The overall objective was to influence the culture of STEM departments at AAU institutions so that faculty members are encouraged and supported to use teaching practices proven by research to be effective in engaging…

Public-school students in the world's largest city, Shanghai, China, are academically outperforming their counterparts across the globe and becoming the talk and envy of education experts worldwide. Using an innovative partnering approach that matches successful schools with low-performing schools, Shanghai has valuable lessons to teach on turning…

The "Made in Durham" report sets out a vision that every young person in Durham should have the opportunity to achieve a postsecondary credential and begin a rewarding career by the age of 25. Its central premise is that all Durham's youth and young adults are entitled to a first-rate education and training system that prepares them for…

Bologna reform eulogies and protests tend to focus on the benefits and shortcomings of the new two-tier curricula, their implementation and orientation. In this article, an assessment of the Bologna reforms is made in terms of their larger and less widely discussed systemic and institutional effects--which go far beyond the original reformers'…

Recent Australian higher education reforms envisioned creation of a unified national system (with a smaller number of larger institutions) through institutional mergers. This article discusses the merger of two Melbourne institutions, La Trobe University and Lincoln Institute of Health Sciences, focusing on key issues that delayed the merger for…

Assesses nine professional development initiatives by the Philadelphia Education Fund to understand why such initiatives achieve only partial implementation at the school level. Entrenched policies and practices, unsupportive principles, faculty team disruptions, and union work rules affecting teacher transfers and faculty work time were all…

Describes the Minnesota Transfer Curriculum (MNTC), a statewide agenda for improving student transfer that inspired general education reform. Reviews the Minnesota Community College System, elements of the statewide reform movement, key principles of the MNTC and issues related to its implementation, and future challenges to education reform in…

A study described the experiences of elementary educators who are attempting to implement a districtwide School-To-Work (STW) reform effort in the Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Public Schools (MPS). The descriptions were derived from the first and second years of a 3-year evaluation of MPS's STW implementation plan. Data for the study were drawn from the…

Argues for a new organizational culture of collaboration in the community college, one defined by student-centered goals. Discusses several projects that employ this new partnership model, specifically Santa Ana College's (California) Summer Scholars Transfer Institute, which developed from a collaborative assessment by the internal and external…

A series of five discussions with more than 50 people involved in the national school-to-work initiative created by the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 (STWOA) resulted in the following conclusions (among others): (1) Problems with the concept include a negative attitude toward the phrase "school-to-work," the complicated nature…