Over the past 30 years, states have assumed a greater role in financing education. The presumption of local control has been superseded by systems of state control. This shift in authority raises several critical questions. Chief among them is, "What effect has centralization of education financing had on the capacity of school districts to…

This article explores the strategic compensation efforts of the Austin Independent School District (AISD) in Texas, which is piloting a system of supports and rewards for teachers and administrators. The article highlights the key components of this system, what it took to put a 4-year pilot program in place, and what results are emerging from…

We present an innovative pedagogical approach that we call "constructive evaluation," which shifts students from being consumers of knowledge to participants in a community of peers engaged in actively producing and sharing knowledge. Students are required to author a question that assesses one or more of the learning outcomes of a course. In…

Given that Latinas/os make up the fastest-growing population group in the U.S., according to the 2000 U.S. Census, classroom teachers increasingly are in need of meaningful resources and learning strategies for students of Latin American heritage. These same resources can also serve to help internationalize/diversify classrooms serving non-Latino…

About 80,000 children enter kindergarten in Washington each year, and many lack basic language and behavioral skills--such as knowing letters and colors, following directions, getting along with others, and exhibiting impulse-control. In 2006, based on the recommendation of the Washington Learns Commission, Governor Christine Gregoire created the…

Within a system, change affects stakeholders differently. Consequently, when making changes in the mental health system, mental health agencies should expect varied reactions from staff, community members, consumers, and families. Since misunderstandings can stymie efforts to implement evidence-based and promising practices, it is important to…

Digital library is commonly seen as a type of information retrieval system which stores and accesses digital content remotely via computer networks. However, the vision of digital libraries is not limited to technology or management, but user experience. This book is an attempt to share the practical experiences of solutions to the operation of…

Inequality of access to educational resources by different social classes has been widely documented, and schools have instituted parent programs to ameliorate this situation. However, lacking are theoretically based studies that explain how and why a program may be effective in bringing about change. The authors studied a 12-week parent…

Open educational resources, open content, open access, open research, open courseware--all of these open initiatives share, and benefit from, a vision of access and a collaborative framework that often result in improved outcomes. Many of these open initiatives have gained adoption within higher education and are now serving in mission-critical…

The intent of this study is to understand both direct and indirect resource effects in the context of a mass education system in Uganda. We find that under certain conditions, policies that promote physical resource availability can lead to substantial equity gains. A school's social composition appears to improve educational quality but it is…

With the acceleration of the internationalization process of higher education in China, the Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools (CFCRS) has been developing at an expeditious pace nowadays. It positively enhances the internationalization process of Chinese higher education and greatly contributes to providing the society with talents.…

Today, millions of school-age children are learning outside of a traditional classroom and using cutting edge educational options. Policy experts predict that in a decade half of all education will be delivered virtually. In "Virtual Schooling" three top authorities help you navigate the fastest growing movement in education--regardless of whether…

This paper shows that although the top ten percent of colleges are substantially more selective now than they were 5 decades ago, most colleges are not more selective. Moreover, at least 50 percent of colleges are substantially less selective now than they were then. This paper demonstrates that competition for space--the number of students who…

Despite their successful use in many conscientious studies involving outdoor learning applications, mobile learning systems still have certain limitations. For instance, because students cannot obtain real-time, context-aware content in outdoor locations such as historical sites, endangered animal habitats, and geological landscapes, they are…

This study was designed to identify predictors of behavioural disorders in children with learning disabilities and children without learning disabilities in the United Arab Emirates public school system. It examined the relative contributions of child characteristic (i.e. presence of learning disability, gender, age), parents' socio-demographics…