Based on an in-depth case study, this book reveals how politicians, as policy makers, conceptualise, develop and initiate large-scale education system reform and why it matters for whole system school improvement. Governments all over the world are spending increasing time, money and effort on improving school systems but the evidence suggests…

The current literature of school education, transnationalisation and migration explores actors, structures and social mechanisms, however, tends to focus on these analytical levels separately. This article advocates a more explicit analysis of the interconnections of structures, actors and mechanisms within and across schools and wider national…

Drawing on decades of research, policy, and practice, Jennifer A. O'Day and Marshall S. Smith show how strategies for pursuing educational quality and equal outcomes for all students can be linked, presenting an ambitious idea of the future of American education and a comprehensive theory of change for enacting that vision. The authors argue that…

This exploratory, comparative study focuses on the leadership challenges encountered by American and Swedish school superintendents in communities that experienced an unexpected increase in the number of refugees being placed their towns. We focused the study on two small communities in northern Sweden and two communities in northern Vermont. Our…

The alignment of professional development and teacher evaluation has been a growing concern in teacher professional development practices. The issue of how teacher evaluation can help authentic professional development is important in that teachers only learn what is real, useful and valuable to them. Based on our reflections on current…

Raising the attractiveness of vocational education and training (VET) has been on the UK as well as the European agenda for some time, primarily for economic and social development reasons. However, little is known about the role of skills competitions in improving the attractiveness of VET. This study uses data from 110 interviews with…

The focus of Thematic Working Group 1 at EDUsummIT 2017 centred on the need for alignment in education systems and was driven by two key questions relating to (a) if and how all the parts of an education system work together to support the type of learning envisioned in the twenty-first century, and (b) if there is alignment, what is the…

The past decade has seen increasing interest from U.S. policymakers and think tanks in looking across countries for educational reform strategies. At the same time, due to differences across content and culture, many researchers are skeptical of this practice of 'policy-borrowing.' This research examines the emergence of a new form,…

As states seek waivers under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, one effect may be to chip away at the dominance reading and math have had when it comes to school accountability. Many state waiver applications include plans to factor test scores in one or more additional subjects into their revised accountability systems. Seven of the 11 states…

Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) and the National Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) have teamed up to bring you a ground-breaking policy brief that examines the role of school districts in promoting family engagement. "Seeing is Believing: Promising Practices for How School Districts Promote Family Engagement" spotlights how six…

Technology implementation research indicates that teachers' beliefs and knowledge, as well as a host of institutional factors, can influence technology integration. Drawing on third-generation activity theory, this article conceptualizes technology implementation as a network of planning and integration activities carried out by technology…

The American University of Beirut's Interfaculty Graduate Environmental Sciences Program was launched in 1997 as a means of addressing salient issues on the environment and development in Lebanon and the Arab World using an interdisciplinary approach. The programme adopts a student-centred learning approach and aims to develop critical and systems…

Many educators agree that we already know how to foster student success, so what is keeping common sense from becoming common practice? The author provides step-by-step guidance for overcoming the barriers to adopting the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and achieving equity and excellence for all students. As an experienced teacher and…

Education for sustainability has attempted to extend the range of concerns teachers and students are meant to address from the environmental into the social and economic. But this has brought with it aspects of an anti-industrial sentiment and an essentially defensive, issues-focused agenda aimed at the individual. It has weakened the role of…