Since 1999, European education ministers have discussed and further implemented the "Bologna process", a wide-ranging framework for the reform of higher education. Lifelong learning was added as a goal of the process in 2001. This article evaluates the extent to which the development of lifelong learning has progressed and examines…

This study was designed to determine whether significant differences existed in the level of implementation of a professional development strategy, the attitude of teachers toward this professional development strategy, and the knowledge of teachers regarding this professional development strategy. After teachers were trained on the professional…

Current state and federal reform initiatives rely heavily on the ability of multiple stakeholders to access and use information from statewide longitudinal data systems (SLDS) to improve student achievement. Policymakers believe that states are best positioned to achieve this by developing and implementing various policies impacting the educator…

Because educators continue to face challenges when seeking to educate all children, there is a growing recognition that schools must work with communities to maximize their collective educational potential (Murphy, Beck, Crawford, Hodges, & McGauphy, 2001). Although community schools are still in the emergent stages of development, their emphasis…

Following the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region developed wide-ranging curriculum reforms, including project learning. A recent survey has indicated that over 80% of Hong Kong primary and secondary schools have adopted project learning as a curriculum task. Such an…

The standard model of technology diffusion argues that changing teachers' perceptions and epistemological beliefs about the value of an innovation is conducive to successful implementation. It is believed that teachers' receptiveness to technology and a re-conceptualization of its role in teaching and learning can drive the development of new…

This study investigates the attitudes of teacher educators in China toward recent reforms in professional experience for pre-service teachers proposed by the Chinese Ministry of Education and their perception of the challenges facing the implementation of the proposed reforms. An analysis of data from an online survey and semi-structured…

Evaluation and accountability are two of the most popular catchwords employed by higher education reformers in the Western world over the last 25 years. For 25 years governments throughout Western countries have been using evaluation and institutional accountability as policy tools to steer their university systems at a distance. From a…

This paper first provides a critic of the implementation of compulsory national assessment protocols internationally, and then nationally through a review of the implementation process used for the introduction of National Standards in New Zealand, and National Testing in Norwegian mainstream schools. It then reviews the impact of these two…

As part of the evaluation of the Strategic School Funding for Results (SSFR) project (called Budgeting for Student Success, or BSA, in Los Angeles Unified School District), the American Institutes for Research (AIR) conducted surveys of principals, teachers, and members of School Site Councils (SSCs) to gather information on their attitudes and…

In 2006, six community and technical colleges in Washington State joined the innovative national reform initiative called Achieving the Dream (ATD). This report describes the progress each college made in implementing ATD's "culture of evidence" principles for institutional improvement, examines strategies implemented by the colleges to…

In order to move forward with State and local reforms designed to improve academic achievement and increase the quality of instruction for all students in a manner that was not originally contemplated by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), a State educational agency (SEA) may request flexibility, on its own behalf and on behalf of its…

Elementary school students at a suburban K-12 charter school are facing a difficult transition into the secondary program. In an effort to ease this transition and retain students, the principal requires the secondary teachers to implement a study skills program into the daily curriculum. Initially, the teachers do not voice any objections to the…

The purpose of this article is to explore Microsoft Corporation as a new international actor shaping educational reforms and practices. This study examines how the implementation of Microsoft's global Partners in Learning (PiL) program varied and was mediated by national politics and national institutional practices in two different contexts,…

National policy affects local practice in a variety of ways and through a variety of mechanisms. In this article, the authors examine what has been learned from Individuals With Disabilities Education Act's (IDEA) two early childhood (EC) programs about the power and limitations of policy as a lever to improve the lives of young children.…