In her three years as U.S. secretary of education, Margaret Spellings has been a celebrity contestant on "Jeopardy!," a guest on "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," and an occasional subject of Washington's best-read gossip column. Above all, though, she's been the nation's leading spokeswoman for the No Child Left Behind Act…

In recent years, the rigor and quality of educational research have drawn much attention. This increased interest has been driven by state efforts to collect student achievement data, the creation of the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the explicit call for"scientifically based research" written into the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act,…

Certain cultural customs and practices are viewed as abhorrent by many people, yet contemporary American counselors rarely criticize any specific culture. In this article, the authors explore why counselors abstain from such criticism. Furthermore, the authors demonstrate that universalism, often regarded as a politically incorrect and an…

People and organizations are inherently political. Library workplace environments have zones of tension and dynamics just like any corporation, often leading to the formation of political camps. These different cliques influence productivity and work-related issues and, at worst, give meetings the feel of the Camp David negotiations. Politics are…

This paper argues that imperialism continues to exist today. It focuses on the ideational dimension of such power constellation and highlights the role of "educational diplomacy". Specifically, it examines norm-settings within international educational politics as a way of identifying shifts within what might be called benevolent…

Lawmakers have been putting increasing pressure on private colleges to spend more of their endowments on student aid. Just a few weeks ago, members of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee sent letters to dozens of institutions with endowments of at least $500-million, demanding detailed information about how they manage those endowments, how much…

Pale, once a just a village when Bosnia's war ended 13 years ago, is now a bustling town, the hub of "Serbian Sarajevo," and home to several divisions of the Bosnian Serbs' University of East Sarajevo, their homegrown alternative to the multiethnic University of Sarajevo. It was in Pale that Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, the Bosnian…

The author's argument revolves around the relationships between government agendas and the agency of teachers, and between them the intermediary role of management as "system leaders" of network forms. Network is a pluralistic concept: networks can serve very different educational-political interests. They offer the potential of new…

Fundamentalist and evangelical Christianity is growing in popularity in Australia, concurrent with the ascendancy of the new Christian school. This article examines the historical and policy landscapes that have given rise to this educational phenomenon and draws some links with other education systems, particularly the United States. It is argued…

Environmental education is commonly claimed to be at the centre of efforts to achieve sustainable development. Since the 1980s, Costa Rica has been one of the acknowledged leaders in efforts to promote environmental learning, and national policy includes a three-fold national development strategy which simultaneously promotes education,…

Political participation in the rural United States has often been narrowly defined within the confines of electoral politics. Increasingly, participants in rural US social movements have highlighted the shortcomings of democracy defined purely in terms of electoral politics in favour of a more participatory model of politics that focuses on the…

Over the past several decades, Kentucky's efforts to build equity, adequacy, and excellence in public education have produced substantial results. The state has moved closer to delivering for all children, but it has not completed the effort. Instead, having set itself a 2014 deadline to deliver proficiency for all, despite progress, Kentucky is…

The purpose of this case study was to understand the relationship between USAID and U.S. universities in the context of evolving foreign assistance policy. The formation of the partnership and the characteristics of how the partnership functions beyond the political call for this alliance was studied. My interest was to identify and study what…

This study examines one of the longest standing interdistrict choice programs in the country: Rochester, New York's Urban-Suburban Interdistrict Transfer Program (USITP). Based upon quantitative and qualitative data, including analysis of approximately forty years of program records, review of program documents and newspaper articles, and…

Currently, every state has its own set of academic standards, but that may soon change. The National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers are spearheading a state-led process that will lead to the development and voluntary adoption of K-12 national reading and math standards. Forty-six states and the District of…