A large central government providing numerous public services has long been a hallmark of Swedish society, which is also well-known for its pursuit of equality. Yet in the 1990s, Sweden moved away from this tradition in education, introducing market-oriented reforms that decentralized authority over public schools and encouraged competition…

In this report, the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) provides a summary of its Fiscal Year 2005 accomplishments. Also, in recognition of its 25th anniversary, this report highlights some of the significant cases that OCR has resolved over the years. This report also includes a few quotations and case resolution stories from previous years to provide…

The achievement gap is clearly visible throughout the school years, from grade-school test scores through high school graduation and higher education. It divides American Indian, Asian, Black, Latino, and White students, and it divides the economically advantaged from the disadvantaged regardless of their race/ethnicity. Under the federal No Child…

Idealistic federal legislation that invokes excellence and fairness, such as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, may actually leave many rural communities behind as rural schools seeking to meet the federal mandates collide with state budget deficits of historical proportion. Drawing on the literature, public opinion polls, and the…

This document collects the 12 monthly issues of Volume 31 of "Exceptional Parent," a magazine focused on practical advice for parents of children with disabilities. Most of the issues include a focus topic as well as articles on other issues, columns, reviews, and letters. These 12 issues concentrate on the following areas: (1)…

This directory is a broad-based compilation of schools, agencies, organizations, and programs in the governmental and private, non-profit sectors that provide a wide variety of direct and indirect services, information, and other assistance to individuals with blindness or visual impairments. Organized information on producers and distributors of…

Enhanced autonomy of sub-national governments has spurred innovative management. Spending assignments across levels of government, however, often overlap and/or are not yet fully understood by most citizens. Sub-national governments' accountability is further reduced by the heavy reliance on federal transfers, as opposed to own-revenues (taxes and…

Americans rely on public schools to educate and prepare almost 50 million students to become productive members of society. Yet many public schools, particularly those in large cities, face significant challenges: over-crowded classrooms, shortages of highly-qualified teachers, low student achievement, achievement gaps, access to preschool, and…

This paper contributes to an emerging body of literature on school districts as active partners in education reform. Using qualitative methods, it details the first three years of a major districtwide initiative in San Diego City Schools as reformers sought to orient central office bureaucracy around an instructional agenda. This paper both…

The four papers in this document are centered around several themes in education reform: (1) the need to reimagine and recreate strategies; (2) the need to approach familiar obstacles innovatively; (3) the need to utilize all available resources; and (4) and the need to engage in this work cooperatively and with courage and vision. In the first…

Recognizing the critical importance of parent involvement in early education, this textbook presents a variety of strategies and techniques for parent involvement in early childhood education programs. Chapters in the first part of the book focus on specific issues and challenges in implementing parent involvement. Chapter 1 examines the need for…

Community-based learning (CBL) is a structured approach to learning and teaching that connects meaningful community experience with intellectual development, personal growth, and active citizenship. Enthusiasm for CBL is emerging in Australia and elsewhere because it is seen as the following: strategy for whole-school reform, especially in…

Higher education governance structures are ineffective and new structures of "prospective governance" are needed for future success. Trends affecting higher education include financial scarcity, lack of government funding juxtaposed with the growing public demand for better services, and the competitive pressures of commercialization and…

Approximately 700,000 Federal employees have children under age 13; at least an equal number of Federal employees are estimated to have concerns about their elderly parents and relatives. This handbook was developed primarily to put government employees in touch with the many free resource organizations and agencies around the country that can…

This package consists of a facilitator's guide and three booklets that were developed to provide basic preventive health information for adults caring for young children and presents a story line with characters who become more self-confident in coping with children's health issues as they build their knowledge about preventive health. The…