During the pandemic, the economic way of thinking was extraordinarily useful, leading to a quick consensus among economists of widely differing political persuasions on many issues of pandemic policy. Yet speaking to politicians, bureaucrats, and the public revealed many ways in which the economic way of thinking was foreign and sometimes…

In spring 2020, nearly every U.S. public school closed at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Existing evidence suggests that local political partisanship was a better predictor of in-person instruction than COVID case and death rates in fall 2020. We replicate and extend these analyses using data collected over the entirety of the 2020-21…

This paper examines prime minister Robert Menzies decision to support science education in Australian schools in 1963. This was a landmark shift in policy for the federal government, but in many ways mirrors the decision of Eisenhower who brought down the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) in 1958. The paper uses a transnational approach to…

This study examines factors that deter students in Austria, Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands from studying abroad. Using an adaptation of the Rubicon model of action phases, the path to gaining study abroad experience is conceptualised as a process involving two thresholds: the decision threshold and the realisation threshold. Theoretical…

Based on a case study of the formulation and enactment of the Education Amendments of 1972, an analysis of the federal policy-making process for higher education is presented to provide the academic community a realistic perspective on federal action. Includes discussion of the policy arena, sources of policy options, and pluralistic…

Examines Nigeria's language policies in terms of (1) the historical, sociolinguistic, political, educational, and ideological contexts in which they arose; (2) their impact on patterns of language choice and use in education and other aspects of life; and (3) their implications for the theory and practice of language planning. (51 references) (GLR)

Argues the need for a broad perspective in primary care policy, for government decision making to replace the normal market, for policy makers unafraid of controversy, for recognition of the difficulty of quantitative measurement of health care services, and for strong leadership including that from the academic sector. (JT)

Controversy surrounding the definition of the gifted student, as enacted through New Mexico's Public School Reform Act of 1986 (S.B. 106) is examined in this study. The Kingdon decision-making model is applied to examine the reasons for the persistence of the policy definition of "gifted," despite continuing controversy. The summary…

State departments of education, administrators, educational testing systems, and the media are demanding uniformity of instructional units and of performance objectives for community college English courses. Limited funds and the desire to promote a favorable public image are factors encouraging standardization of instruction. Presently, policy…

Politics of evaluation and accountability are not practiced solely by evaluators and accountants; everyone does it. This is because evaluation and accountability are fraught with decision situations which embody the potential to become political. Among sources of conflict in evaluation and accountability are questions of goals and priorities,…

Discusses how declines in enrollments, budgets, public confidence in schooling, and the legitimacy of administrative authority have politicized the educational environment. Discusses distinctive features of politics and management of decline, how decline has prompted a policy reassessment, and competing explanations for failures and problems with…

This study examines the responsiveness of the Israeli National Educational Policy-Making System (NEPS) to public demands for more civic education during the crisis period of 1973-75. Based on Easton's general theory, the author describes the political situation in terms of wants, demands, support, and regulation and observes NEPS output results.…

This case study of the Early Childhood Education Program (California) focuses on the political meaning of evaluation. It shows how analysis of evaluation politics reveals who controls education policy, which values are prevailing and dominant, and which definitions of policy goals constitute the assumptive world. (RDN)

As courts at the local, state, and federal levels take an increasingly large role in formulating educational policy, serious questions arise about the use of social science data in judicial decision-making. The seven papers in this book were first presented at a symposium focusing on an exploration of the manner in which the definitions of…

In the United States, there is a long and rich tradition of professors of education addressing, in one way or another, the vital link between social issues and the educational process. This book is comprised of original personal essays in which noted professors of education of the last half of the twentieth century delineate the genesis and…