During the past three decades, extensive literature has accumulated on the early years of life for children. Research findings unequivocally agree that these years are a critical period of intense learning for children which provides the foundation for later academic and social success. This review explores the literature on the complex…

Artificial Neural Networks (ANN's) are nowadays a common subject in different curricula of graduate and postgraduate studies. Due to the complex algorithms involved and the dynamic nature of ANN's, simulation software has been commonly used to teach this subject. This software has usually been developed specifically for learning purposes, because…

Due to the current economic downturn, policymakers have been looking for budgetary options that allow for reductions in expenditures without impacting student achievement. One cost-cutting policy that some states and districts have adopted is to keep instructional time the same but shorten the school week. A recent policy brief from the Education…

The author's "School District Consolidation Study in 10 Michigan Counties" study was published in August, 2010 by The Education Policy Center at Michigan State University. It was intended to measure the financial impact of consolidation of schools at the county level akin to other states like Virginia, Florida and Maryland. The study was…

Public policy surrounding newborn screening is in flux. New technology allows more screening for more diseases at lower cost. Traditional criteria for target diseases have been criticized by leading health policymakers. The example of newborn screening for Krabbe disease highlights many of the dilemmas associated with population-based screening…

The surprise value of many economic observations makes the economics discipline quite interesting for many students. One such anomaly is that providing "free" education in an effort to reduce the number of dropouts can often result in a lower level of educational quality purchased. This result is easy to show with indifference curves, but many…

The United States is full of schools built in the 1950s and 60s that supported the boomer school-age enrollment increase. These schools, once beacons of the neighborhood, are 50 to 60 years old and susceptible to becoming the community "eyesore." Budgeting for maintenance was fairly systematic for school districts for the first 10 to 20…

When new media and delivery systems are introduced, they are often accompanied by claims that they provide increased learning. The temptation to ascribe learning powers to delivery systems is strong, as evidenced by repeated attempts over many decades to do so. A relatively new arrival, "serious games" are currently the recipient of much attention…

Globalization and industrial restructuring transform rural places in complex and often contradictory ways. These involve both quantitative changes, increasing the size and scope of operation to achieve economies of scale, and qualitative shifts, sometimes leading to a shift up the quality/price scale, towards finer spatial resolution and…

Operations staffs at education facilities of all sizes are tasked with selecting a hard floor cleaning program that is cost-effective, efficient and highly productive. With an increased focus on the sustainability of an environment, facility managers also must select a program that meets sustainability goals while maintaining a healthful, safe…

This article presents lessons learned from a story of a snowy and dangerous intersection where there was no way for pedestrians to cross. The basic theme of this paper is that if political economy is preoccupied largely with the measurement of externalities, then a goal for the testing and assessment policy community should be to devise strategies…

In this paper, principal components methodology is used to derive simplified and cost effective indexes of water poverty. Using a well known data set for 147 countries from which an earlier five-component water poverty index comprising of "Resources," "Access," "Capacity," "Use" and "Environment" was constructed, we find that a simplified…

In this paper, I use Levin and McEwan's (2001) cost feasibility approach and personnel data obtained from the Superintendent of Public Instruction to estimate the cost of providing coaching support to every newly hired principal in Washington State. Based on this descriptive analysis, I estimate that the cost to provide leadership coaching to…

This study was carried out to examine the effects of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) using dynamic software on the achievement of students in mathematics in the topic of reflection symmetry. The study also aimed to ascertain the pre-service mathematics teachers' opinions on the use of CAI in mathematics lessons. In the study, a mixed research…

The emphasis of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) on improving student learning through Assurance of Learning (AOL) makes faculty involvement in the process at AACSB accredited schools important. This study examines the attitudes of accounting and economics faculty at AACSB accredited institutions toward the AOL…