Anthony Bryk is president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Previously, he held the Spencer Chair in Organizational Studies in the School of Education and the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University as well as the Marshall Field IV Professor of Urban Education and Sociology at the University of Chicago. Dr.…

This report has been prepared as an introduction to standards-based individualized education programs (IEPs). It has been prepared especially for those who work in and are responsible for charter schools. It is an addition to the resources available on the Primers on Special Education in Charter Schools website that is designed specifically to…

China and India have faced similar conditions and challenges in education during their rapid industrial and social transformation. The two countries started building their national education systems under comparable conditions in the late 1940s. However, different policies, strategies, and historical circumstances have led them through different…

In response to long-standing problems with student academic performance, the condition of school facilities, and the overall management of the D.C. public school system, the D.C. Council approved the Public Education Reform Amendment Act of 2007 (Reform Act). The Reform Act made major changes to the operations and governance of the D.C. public…

This article seeks to explore the "two faces of education" through a critical analysis of peace education in Sri Lanka. It aims to contribute to the wider debate on the complex role of education in situations of conflict. The article starts with an overview of what peace education is, or should be. This leads to the conclusion that peace…

Current Educational Reform in Japan is oddly captured with confused conceptions of "compulsory education." The Ministry of Education blankets such connotations of it, as a national budget system, mandated school curriculum, responsible partnership of school with community and accountabilities of local school board, in defense of vested…

This article discusses higher education transformation in California, the wider USA, and Asia. It touches on several sensitive topics, including the relationship between higher education and the public good versus commodification, privatization, and centralization versus decentralization, as well as others. In the USA and California, this has led…

Transition problems from secondary to tertiary level in mathematics have been a recurrent issue in Sweden. This paper summarises the development during the last decades. Results from two recent research studies that illuminate the transition problem are presented. The first one, based on empirical data from a major Swedish technical university,…

The American Association of Community Colleges' (AACC) Plus 50 Initiative is a three-year initiative launched in June 2008 and funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies. It was created to support a pilot group of two-year institutions to develop or expand campus programs that engage plus 50 learners. The initiative focuses on three types of…

Contemporary teacher education, like other aspects of tertiary education, involves regimes for assessing quality of teaching. These regimes include student assessment of and feedback on teaching. These are widely considered problematic, and yet there are few signs that teacher educators reject the notion that student responses have something of…

The present report is a product of two ENQA (European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education) seminars, held in 2007, on current trends in European Quality Assurance. The first seminar, hosted by the Bulgarian National Evaluation and Accreditation Agency (NEAA), examined the situation in South-Eastern Europe. The second seminar…

The experience of public policy in Sri Lanka has had a profound impact on the thinking of the global development community in relation to the role of education in economic development. In particular, the example of Sri Lanka helped to persuade policy makers around the world that governments can successfully develop a general education system to…

In the last two decades, China's education has experienced significant transformations and restructuring on account of privatization and marketization. Unlike the Mao era when the state assumed the major responsibilities in financing and providing education, individuals and families have now to bear increasing financial burdens in paying for…

This paper focuses on the educational opportunities available to rural migrant children in Beijing. On the basis of fieldwork conducted in migrant communities in 2004-2005, I conclude that administrative and financial barriers, as well as discrimination, prevent migrant children from entering state schools. I discuss the quality of education…

This article presents an overview of the e-learning in India. It describes the historical developments of e-learning and identifies major stakeholders and institutions that have initiated e-learning programs after the creation of the National Task Force on Information Technology and Software Development constituted by the Prime Minister of India…