In December 2014, the Coalition for the Future of Detroit Schoolchildren (CFDS) was formed to make sweeping educational reform recommendations regarding the provision and governance of public education in Detroit. Spearheaded by community organizations, labor unions, and business interests representing an array of stakeholders in the Detroit area,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the policy process that led to the passage of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act in the United States and the Bush Administration's role in this process. Design/methodology/approach: The research design is historical and archival. A description of the NCLB Act is given and the major provisions and…

From the 1980s to the present, educational accountability in the United States has grown dramatically. Such accountability in U.S. school districts, although driven primarily by external demands, has internal manifestations as well. The chapter traces the historical development of internal evaluation in American school districts, then highlights…

Historically, education policy making has been interwoven with the nation-building project. However, the centrality of the nation state in education policy making has been constrained by a wide range of new socio-political and economic phenomena that relate to European integration. This article explores the ways in which European education…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate decision making in the Common Core State Standards Initiative as the change process moved from research, development and diffusion activities to adoption of the Common Core State Standards by the states. A decision-oriented evaluation model was used to describe the four stages of planning, structuring,…

The open method of coordination (OMC) within the Lisbon strategy is discussed in terms of a European Space for Education and "programme ontology". The focus is on indicators and the European dimension, and how they "work" in the forming of contents and identities in this European Space for Education. The OMC is analyzed in…

Offers points for consideration by both school boards and charter-school advocates. Important elements of a successful charter school include vision, hands-on administrators, a commitment to staff development, and founders who also serve as maintainers. (LMI)

Argues that the abolishment of the Disadvantaged Schools Program (DSP) in South Australia represented a shift away from a focus on the social to the individual, from curriculum to instruction, from school-based inquiry and teacher research to expert solutions, and from various contexted and contested outcomes to a singular and simplistic version…

A top aide to Vice President Gore has been chosen to lead the U.S. Department of Education's effort to modernize delivery of financial aid to students and colleges. His office is the first federal government entity to be run as a "performance-based organization." Some fear he may politicize the office that lawmakers specified be led by a…

The community college concept was heatedly debated in Wisconsin from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s. A number of study groups and governmental bodies endorsed the creation of community colleges. Although most states embraced the concept of the community college, however, Wisconsin's debate over whether to establish a statewide community college…

Federal education policy preferences of the Reagan Administration include both procedural and substantive elements. The overarching procedural policy is devolution--the transfer of the authority and responsibility for education policy and program development from the federal to state and local levels. Federal activities intended to advance…

This report examines political conflict in decision making in three public schools, and describes how the Teacher Participation Project (TPP), which was implemented in two of the schools, sought to minimize such conflict by institutionalizing local governance structures for teachers. The report consists of two parts. Part I investigates various…

This broad introduction to adult and postcompulsory education offers an overview of the field for students, adult educators and workplace trainers. The book establishes an analytical framework to emphasize the nature of learning and agency of learners; examines the core knowledge and skills that adult educators need; discusses policy, research and…

The advent of the "information age," and the electronic communication technologies that are part of it, was supposed to replace print. However, this has not been the case, as the amount of print materials being produced and read has increased along with the electronic equipment. Far from replacing established media and communication…

This paper reports a 2-year study of education policy that sought to identify, describe, and analyze the essential building blocks of state-level education policy and to discover the factors responsible for creating differences among states in their use of these elements to construct an overall framework for school regulation and support. Sample…