The paper, first, outlines the official policy regarding education and training 14-19, second, picks out five areas within which that policy might be assessed, and, finally, raises questions about the educational thinking which underlies the policy.

There is increasing interest in understanding and describing the links between education and "social cohesion". However, the theoretical and empirical base for understanding these links is limited. There is also a shortage of practical tools for education policy-makers and planners, to help them assess the impact of policies and…

Public policy can be a powerful tool for children and their families. Accordingly, this article addresses how psychologists and other child-oriented researchers can leverage this tool to ensure that child and family issues, specifically issues related to child abuse and neglect, receive adequate attention. We encourage a bidirectional relationship…

Education action zones (EAZs) involving local partnerships are one of the government's policies set up to help raise standards in pupils' performance and behaviour in areas of economic and social disadvantage. This article explores the nature of these partnerships and the fact that pupils are excluded. It reviews literature on student voice and…

The role of Chancellors of the Exchequer in the making of policy is education has attracted the attention of few researchers, and little has been published that seeks systematically and comprehensively to examine this issue. This is remarkable given that, for most of the last 25 years, this office has been filled by four unusually powerful and…

President Bush wants to fashion several new education programs, including pricey items central to his oft-touted high school agenda. But he also is proposing for the first time since he entered the White House to cut the overall budget of the U.S. Department of Education. And he's asking Congress to give up a lot--48 line items, to be exact. The…

The nation's governors adjourned their two-day summit on high schools armed with an expanded arsenal of political and financial commitments to prepare all students for success in college and the workplace. But despite the enthusiastic launch of two major initiatives at the February 26-27, 2005 meeting here, observers cautioned that improving…

This chapter suggests important questions useful in the process of developing or refining institutional or departmental gambling policies. Ethical, political, and social considerations are discussed and then briefly synthesized into three potential policy applications.

Education policy documents recently have placed great emphasis on teacher quality in the belief that "education of the highest quality requires teachers of the highest quality" (Department of Employment Education Training and Youth Affairs 2000). This paper traces the discourses on teachers constructed in policy documents in order to…

The main objective of any housing policy is to provide everyone (adults and children) with a good-quality dwelling and housing environment. In Belgium, following the ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, children and youngsters are now considered a separate target group in housing policy formation. However, little is known…

The author presents an active-learning exercise for the introductory macroeconomics class in which students participate in a mock Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting. Preparation involves data gathering and writing both a research report and a policy recommendation. An FOMC meeting is simulated in which students give their policy…

Because social policy making continues to devolve to the state level, social workers should understand how advocacy and policy making occur at that level. Interest groups active in the human services arena were surveyed and data were used to test a model of interest group effectiveness in four states. The independent variables were amount of…

Like many other states, Massachusetts enacted numerous changes to teacher certification policy during the 1980s and 1990s. During the summer of 1998, the state legislature and Department of Education made two especially significant changes: a signing bonus of U.S. $20,000 for an elite group of new teachers, and a state-funded alternative…

The authors use the creation and implementation of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) as a lens through which to view evolving public policy toward infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families, and ZERO TO THREE's growing sophistication and impact in the policy arena. Beginning in 1986, P.L. 99-457 (later renamed…

This article describes the evolution of an academic professional development program, related to the use of WebCT in teaching programs, and discusses the challenges that have arisen for the members of the staff development team since the original implementation of the program. The training program begins with face-to-face workshops, covering…