This article analyzes the transfer and 15-year policy trajectory of Colombia's "global best practice" "Escuela Nueva in Brazil." This program, initially transferred to Brazil in 1997 with the help of the World Bank, was largely unknown for the first decade of its life span. Then, between 2008 and 2011, "after" the…

Since the mid-1980s, a number of East Asian societies have consistently performed well in international tests, and their education systems have emerged as models of "best practice", including Hong Kong, which has been extensively referenced by politicians and their advisers in England. In parallel, local dissatisfaction with the…

Mary O'Sullivan writes that she spent part of her sabbatical leave interviewing teacher educators from nine countries across three continents exploring teacher education contexts both nationally and locally, and the nature of the 'teacher educators' work in these contexts. Three issues struck her: (1) The intensification of regulation and policy…

"PreK-3 Alignment in California's Education System: Obstacles and Opportunities" by Rachel Valentino and Deborah J. Stipek reviews the opportunities and challenges that must be addressed to better align PreK-3 education in California. The report describes policies and practices that districts have implemented to strengthen alignment, and…

Work-Related Learning (WRL) has been enthusiastically embraced by UK governments since the 1990s as a means of reengaging learners in the final years of compulsory schooling. However, recent years have seen a policy shift away from WRL towards a more academic curriculum for all young people. Drawing on a qualitative study commissioned by the…

Empirical evidence that horizontal alignment of policies and practices from preschool through the early elementary grades sustains the effects of quality preschool and contributes to children's learning is scarce, as discussed above, but there are nevertheless good reasons to expect benefits to such alignment. Moreover, many districts and schools…

Despite calls for research-based policies, other types of evidence also influence education policy, including personal experience, professional expertise, and normative values. This article focuses on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) initiative, examining how research use varied over stages of the process and how it was integrated with other…

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) began an ambitious reform of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq's (KRI's) kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) education system beginning in 2007 in an effort to modernize the curriculum, upgrade school facilities, and raise the quality of instruction. In 2010, RAND was asked to conduct a one-year study to assess…

The concept of "knowledge brokerage" focuses on promoting the integration of the best available evidence into policy and practice-related decisions. In this study, emphasis is put on the knowledge brokerage role of cities. The study aims at finding similarities and differences in existing educational knowledge brokerage initiatives, at…

Problem-­solving assessment is an essential component of multi-­tiered systems of support such as response to intervention (RTI) and positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS). This authoritative work provides a complete guide to implementing a wide range of problem­-solving assessment methods, including: (1) functional behavioral…

Sara McAlister, in her article "Why Community Engagement Matters in School Turnaround," in this issue (p35-42) of "Voices in Urban Education," lays out the strong research base showing that family and community participation is a crucial resource not only for individual student achievement, but also for catalyzing and…

The number of students attending afterschool programs has skyrocketed in recent years, currently serving an estimated 8.4 million children (Afterschool Alliance, 2009). Consequently, the demand for high quality afterschool programs, and to learn from successful ones, has never been greater. This "Making Afterschool Programs Better"…

This article presents an interview with Karen Cator, director of the Office of Educational Technology at the U.S. Department of Education. In the interview, Cator talks about the distinctions of a school that's more technologically progressive from one that might be a bit slower to adopt new technologies. She states that the role of technology in…

This article outlines policies from multilateral organisations that advocate sharing best practices between developing nations. The article discusses the degree to which these best practices are implemented by small states as indicated by teachers, academics and policymakers in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. For the purpose of this article, a…

The education system in California currently faces three major challenges--teacher shortage, lack of diversity in the teacher population in terms of gender and ethnicity, and a need for more effective teachers. After school programs have the potential of addressing all these challenges in a cost-effective manner. However, for these programs to…