Generally speaking, teacher assistants provide needed support to teachers by carrying out a range of non-professional tasks in classrooms and schools. The growing use of teacher assistants in Canadian public schools is an issue that is embedded in a complex mix of related issues, policies and trends--class size in conjunction with class…

This paper reports the progress made by the Illinois State Library for 2008-2011. The library's achievements are presented according to the following goals: (1) Promote the use of technology to improve library services; (2) Provide leadership to the Illinois Library community to enhance library service; (3) Increase access to library services for…

Performance funding in higher education ties state funding directly to institutional performance on specific indicators, such as rates of retention, graduation, and job placement. One of the great puzzles about performance funding is that it has been both popular and unstable. Between 1979 and 2007, 26 states enacted it, but 14 of those states…

In September 2007, the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) officially launched the Student Achievement Initiative, a system-wide policy to reward colleges for improvements in student achievement. Developed by a task force comprised of State Board members, college trustees, presidents, and faculty representatives,…

The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement undertook an examination of schools and districts in which thoughtful and well-articulated use of federal, state, and local funds has resulted in innovative and effective reform that can be replicated or adapted in other, similar sites. They reviewed research on district improvement…

This report is based on the Access and Support to Education and Training Survey (ASETS), which was undertaken by Statistics Canada in partnership with Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC). The ASETS brings together three previous education surveys that covered specific population groups: (1) the Survey of Approaches to Educational…

This study aimed at identifying the status and obstacles of scientific research in Jordanian higher education institutions. And defined by being an attempt to increase faculty member's, researcher's and educational leader's attention to the necessity of improving research planning or strategies, professional development, working conditions,…

This paper reports on the preliminary results of a research project "'Beyond immediate impact: Study abroad for global engagement' (SAGE)" which examines the long-term impact of study abroad on various forms of global engagement. The study employs a retrospective tracer study and mixed methods research design. Survey results from 6391 study-abroad…

Education equity is an important means for achieving social equity, but there are few empirical studies on education equity in Chinese academia owing to method limitations. This paper applies a new measurement method to the 2005/6 data of the elementary schools in Zhejiang province and argues that education finance reform in the province has…

This paper examines differences between the decision-making of marginal and nonmarginal students about participation in higher education (HE). We distinguish between two kinds of marginality: being "borderline" on account of prior achievements in school and being "unsure" after taking prior achievement into account. We identify a significant…

This article explores the roles of racism and Whiteness in the decentralized governance structure and practice of a weighted student formula funding policy in an urban, West Coast school district. Specifically, it examines the ways in which a racialized struggle for fiscal authority played out at one urban high school where the immense racial…

The patriarchal structure of the traditional Chinese family suggests that sons, more than daughters, provide financial support to elderly parents. The norm of receiving support in old age primarily from sons, however, may have been undermined by dramatic demographic, economic, and cultural changes occurring over the last several decades in China,…

As Congress began debate last week over the size and scope of more than $120 billion in proposed emergency education aid, state leaders were anxiously awaiting the details so they could make specific plans to spend the economic-stimulus money. Governors, state legislators, and state schools chiefs have yet to learn what rules Congress will attach…

Although it is well known that vaccines against many infectious diseases confer positive economic externalities via indirect protection, analysts have typically ignored possible herd protection effects in policy analyses of vaccination programs. Despite a growing literature on the economic theory of vaccine externalities and several innovative…

In his keynote address to the Fifth Annual American Indian Studies Consortium in 2005 David Wilkins began by commenting on earlier attempts to formally organize such a gathering in ways that might help establish and accredit Indian studies programs. He said he had the sense that the thrust of earlier meetings "was really an opportunity for Native…