Education Department officials closely followed the wishes of Congress when issuing new rules for a highly regarded Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education grant competition. Last year, after Congress directed agency officials to give grants in 18 specified "subject areas," and also suggested recipients, it was criticized for…

Describes the New Mexico High School Supercomputing Challenge, a year-long project sponsored by New Mexico Technet, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and other statewide institutions that engages high school students, teachers, and professionals in complex scientific problem-solving that include written reports, mathematical models, and…

Discusses the strategic importance of institutional research in open universities in order to stay competitive with other more traditional universities. Suggests that a wide range of staff should be encouraged to conduct research based on reflective practice and emphasizes the need to conform to appropriate methodological and ethical standards.…

Considers the changing academic education landscape in light of the technology-driven Internet. Topics include alternative educational opportunities, including part-time and distance learning; additional education needed by employed workers; new competitors, including corporate universities; using technology to integrate education, work, and…

Faced with pupil flight to more prestigious public and private schools, French secondary schools create "good classes," reinforce security and discipline, and try to strengthen links to feeder schools. Parents remain skeptical about relevant criteria for judging school quality; measures are needed to equalize their choosing ability.…

Examines whether private school vouchers would increase educational quality in public and private schools. Even in models featuring X-inefficient (budget-maximizing) administrators, vouchers' effects on quality are ambiguous. Vouchers may reduce the enrollment response to changes in public-school quality by placing different households on the…

Reviews the requirements of the National Titration Competition and describes how a team in a local competition used the technique. Compares microscale titration to conventional titration. Outlines the benefits of employing microscale techniques. (DDR)

Examines how information technology is transforming higher education (asynchronous learning, distance education, customized program structure, customized delivery, outcome-based programs, collaboration, and competition) and discusses implications for state higher education finance policy (competition, student costs, collaboration, and…

A competitive school ambience will further distinguish winners from losers in an increasingly fractured and stratified society. Disadvantaged students have little chance to win the standards game. Educators should examine the gilded age's hypocrisy; what gallantry existed the night the Titanic sank applied only to first-class female passengers.…

A mother and organizational-change consultant expresses hope for the younger generation, based on 13 adolescents' willingness to help and support one another. These youth possess three critical strengths: appreciating one another's diverse gifts, needing each other, and loving to create and claiming the freedom to do so. (MH)

Analysis of labor market trends for physicians considers potential indicators of change and what these indicators show. The article concludes that despite some changes in the market, it is too early to identify a departure from trends. Generalist positions are becoming more attractive, but specialist numbers continue to increase. Little indication…

Discusses paradigm shifts needed in today's evolving information-based society related to distance education. Topics include dissonance between ideals and practice, information technology and global competition, demographic changes, increased costs, resistance to change, the issue of quality, the Internet, research into learning, and curriculum…

In award programs designed to honor exemplary college teaching, common problems include selection procedures and criteria, bias toward popularity, competition versus collaboration, questionable incentives, and use of special awards to replace continuing rewards. An effective teaching awards program will pass three tests of selection validity,…

Efforts to improve the quality of academic programs in the United Kingdom, United States, and Netherlands have followed three general approaches: the logic of competitive markets; application of incentives; and professional self-regulation. Strengths and weaknesses of these approaches for improving academic quality are examined through the lens of…

Defends the ideas presented in "Liberal Equity in Education: A Comparison of Choice Options" (SO 532 109) by responding to the arguments of John Coons, Jeffrey Henig, and Janet Weiss. Discusses the role of the competitive market, integration, tolerance in education, the meaning of diversity and "the state," and the liberal purposes of education.…