This article analyzes a subset of data gathered during a survey of 155 school systems and communities across the nation. The data were obtained from a capability survey as part of the application for a Toyota Family Literacy Program (TFLP) grant. Educators and civic leaders in 38 states responded to questions about their five greatest challenges…

Education as the cure-all for any adverse economic condition is everywhere. But this contention exaggerates the role of schools in the economy, and it conflates two issues: First, how can American firms increase productivity to improve their ability to compete? Education can help in the first area, although it is far from a silver bullet. As to…

Whereas period life expectancy constitutes an intuitive indicator of the survival conditions prevailing at a particular period, this paper argues that, given the existence of welfare interdependencies, that widespread indicator is nonetheless an incomplete measure of the longevity achievements relevant for human well-being. The central importance…

Singapore is no longer content to produce only engineers and technocrats, says Tharman Shanmugaratnam, minister for education. The government wants to foster a dynamic environment that can attract thinkers and leaders in many fields, not just science. Singapore's planners envision their city as the "Boston of the East"--where the alchemy…

A request from the Ford Foundation prompted a fourth and final assessment of the demonstration phase of the Rural Community College Initiative (RCCI), established by the Ford Foundation. Between 1994 to 2002, 24 community colleges answered the foundation's charge to improve access to higher education and to expand the economic development of their…

This paper reviews recent measurement work on User-Created Content (UCC) undertaken in OECD countries. It shows that UCC is emerging as a significant area of economic and social activity worthy of consideration for official measurement and discusses the implications for the OECD Model Survey on ICT Access and Use by Households and Individuals.…

Similar to other underdeveloped countries, the Republic of Turkey is also faced with high levels of poverty and unemployment, and to ameliorate these problems the state has traditionally devoted much of its social welfare efforts towards improving health and education. Certain private sector corporations also recognize that to grow and advance…

This study analyzed trends in access and success of students admitted through the Top 10% admissions policy. The study employs an comparative analysis between public universities from the Borderland region and the two top-tier public universities in Texas. This Texas admissions policy provides students in the top 10% of their graduating high…

In Spring 2007, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation awarded funds to the Philadelphia Youth Network (PYN) to undertake an analysis of Career and Technical Education (CTE) in Philadelphia, and to make recommendations on how CTE and other forms of career-connected education could better align with Philadelphia standards for college and career…

This paper briefly reviews the historical development of the university system in Chile, and describes the current structure of funding, supply and demand for tertiary education, research and university services. Both public and private universities in Chile have expanded and restructured, access to tertiary education has improved, and…

The rural communities of the North American Great Plains are experiencing fundamental economic and social changes that threaten their very existence. While local projects offer hope for survival, many communities lack the knowledge needed to envision and evaluate their possible futures. As a consequence, communities may pursue survival strategies…

This book suggests that the Philippines should be investing more in child development and that doing so will have a high payoff. The objective is to convince those who control resources in the central and local governments, and in the nongovernmental and donor communities, that they should finance an integrated investment package that has a real…

This booklet examines the efforts of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Malawi to increase the enrollment of girls in their schools. Each country has severe problems of access to education for girls; the gender gap in the gross enrollment rate at the primary school level is at least 10 percentage points in each country. What is noteworthy about these three…

This twenty-seventh World Bank Atlas presents key social and economic information for every country on the globe organized under three headings, People, Economy, and Environment. The emphasis is on how these themes are important in the development process. A new addition is that of a new measure of GNP per capita converted at purchasing power…

National concerns linking education and economic development have been stated in "America 2000: An Education Strategy." The America 2000 strategy represents the direction to educational and economic reform in a metaphor of four trains leaving a station on four parallel tracks. However, this misses the point that the tracks are actually…