This document has been conceived to facilitate reflection and guide countries in optimizing the potential of their education policy dialogue and sector coordination mechanisms. It brings into focus the possible core functions of the local education group, the main challenges to realizing these functions and the key principles for ensuring…

Buffer Schools, an emerging Thai border school policy, was first launched in 2010 to response to ASEAN initiatives. Buffer Schools aim to establish close cooperation among neighbour countries, thereby creating a sense of historical and cultural connection that can nurture unity and confraternity in the region. This paper examines the effectiveness…

Persistently low-performing schools have been repeatedly targeted for comprehensive reform for more than two decades, usually with poor results. These efforts have suffered, however, because they were often poorly implemented or insufficiently grounded in rigorous research. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), enacted in 2015, provides a…

Around 30 percent of families across New York State now speak a language other than English at home, resulting in 240,000 English language learners (ELLs) in the state's primary and secondary schools who speak nearly 200 different languages. This report looks at New York State's redesign of policies and practices to better support the education of…

School principals across the nation are asked, each year, to implement policy changes in schools that are meant to improve student performance on standardized tests and increase student achievement. Principals, however, face numerous obstacles that prevent them from implementing policies with fidelity to the policy designs. In New York City (NYC)…

The importance of social capital as a resource for rural development, especially in the context of projects involving joint participation of state and civil society, is widely recognized today. This paper analyzes the obstacles confronted by local players--small farmers and government organizations--in the development of an irrigation area through…

Since the beginning of the 20th century, integration with the Western world has been a determining driver of higher education policies, as well as many other policy areas in Turkey. Becoming a signatory country of the Bologna Process in 2001 brought a new impulse to the higher education policies in this direction. The Bologna Process reforms…

"Between Public and Private" examines an innovative approach to school district management that has been adopted by a number of urban districts in recent years: a portfolio management model, in which "a central office oversees a portfolio of schools offering diverse organizational and curricular themes, including traditional public…

In the early 1990s, large numbers of children in India remained out of school. International commitments to achieve education for all (EFA) globally meant that India was an important case for donors. India was pressed to accept aid for primary education, and agreed with some reluctance. Although subsequent donor involvement was substantial and…

Federal education policy should: (1) define objectives and targets of its activities more precisely; (2) define minimal conditions of organizational performance; (3) distinguish among sources of variability in state-local program implementation; and (4) specify the relationship between strategy and structure. (CJ)

A final report is given of an assessment and comparison series which evaluated the national fitness and sport promotion systems in the United States, Australia, and Canada. The framework of the three country-specific assessments treated national level policies and programs first, followed by state or provincial activities. At each stage, physical…

Federal intent is conveyed to states and localities through a series of actions that include authorizing legislation, legislative history, formal legal framework, administrative decisions, and congressional oversight. Program implementation, in turn, requires states and localities to modify organizational structures, processes, and behavior.…

This paper categorizes and tabulates recommendations of 16 reports published since 1980 addressing ways to improve the management of federally sponsored academic research in the United States. The analysis found that most frequently reiterated recommendations have not been implemented, possibly because implementation often depends on consensus of…

Presents objectives and implementation goals formulated by the Information Industry Association for the anticipated rapid expansion of the telecommunications infrastructure. Highlights include market forces; the role of state, national, and international governments; competition versus regulation; maintenance of reasonable rates; worldwide public…

Although education technologies have had a substantial impact on curricula, teaching, and learning, the overall impact on education has been limited. Evaluative studies of technology in the classroom in California, England, and France, have shown that computers and other new education technologies were embraced initially as viable educational…