This paper discusses the change of educational governance by developing and using a theory of policy instrumentality. It is based on the policy instruments approach in political studies and on the cultural-historical activity theory. It is used to study the relationships and changes of policy instruments and objectives of a major school…

Despite the widespread education reform discourses attempting to alleviate high-stakes examination pressure and narrowly test-driven education systems in East Asia, none have been as systematic and drastic as the Free Year Program (FYP) recently implemented in South Korea. The FYP provides middle school students with a year-long reprieve from…

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI) and the Professional Educator Preparation and Standards Commission (PEPSC) of the State Board of Education are working on a new teacher licensure pathways proposal, Pathways to Excellence for Teaching Professionals (Model). This proposal, if enacted, would restructure the state's system…

This master data collection protocol describes the data that Mathematica collected for the Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge Study of Tiered Quality Rating and Improvement Systems. This study was conducted for the Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences. The data were collected from reviews of applications, documents, and…

Early education has been a growing priority for the Obama administration, and its competitive funding is spurring innovation in this field around the country. In 2013, early education journalist Paul Nyhan, author of this report, conducted case studies of four competitive grant programs that are triggering changes in early education: "Race to…

This paper documents the experience and lessons from implementing an e-learning program aimed at creating research capacity for gender, crisis prevention, and recovery. It presents a case study of bringing together a multidisciplinary group of women professionals through both online and face-to-face interactions to learn the skills needed to be a…

Researchers have found a strong relationship between improvements in quality and satisfaction, revenue, and cost. However, no study to date investigates the same for higher education. This study investigates whether institutions of higher education have implemented quality improvement programs, and if so, if the results are similar to what has…

Hungary's higher education system is being transformed fundamentally for a second time after the regime change in 1989-90. The first Higher Education Act was passed in 1993. An entirely new law issued in December 2005 involved fundamental changes in the entire higher education system. The most sweeping change was the introduction of the two-cycle…