Adult learning policies, like any other policies, need to be effective: they need to reach their objectives and attain the desired impacts, which should be carefully defined. Understanding the performance of policies allows policy makers to change and improve them. A growing body of research and statistics provides important insights into how…

Over the previous two years, Innosight Institute has published a series of case studies about the fast-growing field of online learning in K-12 education. One aim of this effort was to identify policies that had either positive or negative ramifications for students. This policy brief, sponsored by the Joyce Foundation, summarizes some of that…

Explains what educational indicators are and what indicator systems accomplish. Summarizes major educational indicator initiative. Focuses on indicator strategies in California. Discusses several key issues related to indicator development and use. Outlines alternative strategies for making sense of educational indicators. (JS)

Discusses a project initiated by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that demonstrates the feasibility of an international educational indicators system, also discusses the history of OECD and explains the exploratory phase of the indicators project in detail. Discusses budget and further work possibilities. (JS)

This article examines how the UK Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), along with the development of performance indicators, fits into the production of research within a changing policy context. The historical evolution of the RAE from 1985-2001 is considered, before looking specifically at how research output (in the form of journal publications)…

Chapter one of this study of the education of minorities in the United States delineates the past record of the educational system in equating the educational levels of whites and minorities. It also sets the background of the educational system in terms of the dynamics of urban areas and the financial problems faced by school systems. Within…

A research project that developed methods for describing, organizing, analyzing, and predicting state education policy activity had as its major focus the way that values affect that policy. Data were drawn from six states: Wisconsin, Illinois, California, Arizona, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. They were chosen to represent ranges of political…