Child-care facilities that participate in the federally assisted Child and Adult Care Food Program are required to follow meal patterns that meet the nutrient needs for child growth and development. The purpose of this research is to use the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Nutrient Analysis Protocols to evaluate child-care menus in order to…

Standards-based reform has traditionally focused on K-12 educational systems, but there is growing evidence that it is now affecting early childhood programs. While it is increasingly apparent that standards-based reform has arrived in early childhood, there is a significant gap in our understanding of how these policies are being implemented in…

Developing sustainable e-learning requires a better understanding of the perceptions and preferences of e-learning providers and e-learners on the four crucial dimensions for elearning success including pedagogies, technologies, learning resources and management of learning resources. There is, however, little research on evaluating whether these…

There is concern from government in each of the sample sites over the role fathers play in supporting their children through school. Fathers have become a more "visible parent" and a focus for policy-makers in education. Family literacy programmes are used in this article as an example of an educational programme where fathers are often…

The importance of strong school-university partnerships in bridging the so-called theory practice gap in pre-service teacher education has been well established in the literature. The experiences of pre-service teachers during practicum have in particular been shown to be enhanced where there are strong links between the two educational sectors.…

The purpose of this study was to explore the production, communication, interpretation and contestation of new physical education (PE) and physical activity (PA) policy initiatives introduced in Mississippi and Tennessee for the academic year 2006-2007. These states provide a relevant context to study such issues, since Mississippi has the highest…

In the post-Mao era, the Chinese government carried out a series of education reforms to modernise education provision. This paper explores two related aspects of these reforms through comparative case study research in three different school locations within the same region in China. The first focus is upon system reform initiated through…

This research examined the funding request process whereby higher education institutions seek financial support from state government. The study tested whether a model based on state goals and priorities for higher education could distinguish a funded request from an unfunded request. The research was qualitative and followed a comparative case…

Fiscal realities are forcing a review and potential refocusing of Illinois community colleges. This study compared the themes that emerged from interviewing an Illinois community college stakeholder group in 2005 to what emerged from a similar study in Iowa by Ebbers and Gardner in 2002. Illinois stakeholders talked about their overall perceptions…