In Sweden, and in most other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, post-16 education is a general requirement to succeed in adult life. By the late 2000s, after about two decades of policies for student choice and publicly funded free schools, students' results in the Programme for International Student…

Evaluation data are reported on a Transfer Support Team (TST) intervention which supports pupils identified as vulnerable during secondary school transfer. Information about school concerns and broader adjustment measures were collected from TST supported pupils on three occasions and from a "typical benchmark group" on two occasions. Factors…

The recent progress of "co-operative schools" both confirms and disrupts many assumptions surrounding contemporary compulsory schooling. The term itself refers to an eclectic array of schools, both primary and secondary, of which there were, by June 2012, almost 300 in England that have adopted co-operative values, in terms of…

Academic and journalistic comment is prioritised by the endless flood of policy initiatives. Yet these can be seen to be determined by long term intellectual frameworks which define why some issues remain constant and others remain marginal. Thus the dominance of academic provision and neglect of the vocational dates back to the nineteenth…

This paper presents the results of an analysis of the admissions criteria used by the first two waves of secondary Free Schools in England. The type of criteria and their ranked order is explored and their potential impact on the school composition is considered. The findings demonstrate the diversity of criteria being used by this new type of…

The creation of multiple academies and the introduction of free schools across England is a policy-borrowing initiative that has had much debate from various actors in society. Many criticisms have been levelled at the government's plans and many individuals and organisations have called for them not to come on stream, but instead for the…

This article looks at the Coalition Government's recent White Paper and Education Bill whose chief effect will be to further destabilise the schools system in the United Kingdom. The new Bill stipulates that if a new school is needed in an area, proposals for an Academy or a Free School must be prioritised before any other bid can be considered.…

Recently, European school systems have seen various attempts to "modernise" their governance. Market and competition oriented reforms have not been central to governance innovation strategies in German speaking countries, however, their number and relevance is rising in recent years. A free school choice policy which abolishes…

Scott Andrews was a former guidance counselor with no experience in school administration when he became Amityville Memorial High School's principal in 2004, but he brought a wealth of knowledge and experience in psychology--including a doctorate--to the position. He also quickly recruited Peter Hutchison, a special education teacher, to be an…

Previous literature indicates that educational aspirations are an important predictor of achievement at school and beyond. This paper examines the factors that are associated with high educational aspirations. It also looks at the relationship between aspirations and achievement at the General Certificate of Secondary Education in a deprived area…

Free schools are new state-funded but privately-run schools set up under the academies legislation. Free schools represent the most overtly market-oriented policy within the Conservative-led Coalition government's school reform programme in England and have provoked intense controversy, centering on issues of pupil attainment, social equality,…

In 1984, to avoid significant budget cuts, the Santa Barbara (California) Board of Education decided to charge students to participate in certain "extracurricular" activities. The proposed fee--$25 for each activity--generated controversy and was eventually struck down by the California Supreme Court as a violation of the California…

The Educational Missions in the Second Spanish Republic (1931-1936) had the purpose of making available, "especially to those living in rural areas, the feeling of progress and the means to participate in it, as well as in its moral stimuli and in the examples of universal progress, so that all the peoples of Spain, even those in remote areas…

Under the policy of direct certification for free school meals, school districts use information shared by state agencies about household eligibility for means-tested programs in the state in order to determine the potential eligibility for free meals of students enrolled in the district. This information allows districts to automatically approve…

Last year, fifth-graders at the Herricks Union Free School District in New Hyde Park, New York, studied the U.S. presidential primaries while following elections in Zimbabwe, Pakistan and Kenya. At South Brunswick High School in Southport, North Carolina, history students discuss battles of the Civil War via live teleconferences with counterparts…