Governor Jerry Brown's January 2011 budget proposal suggests shifting responsibility and funding for many state programs from the state to the local level. Under this "realignment" of government authority, local governments--usually counties--would be given responsibility for providing the services in realigned programs, and the state…

In this paper, we study a high profile case--the introduction of academy schools into the English secondary school sector--that has allowed schools to gain more autonomy and flexible governance by changing their school structure. We consider the impact of an academy school conversion on their pupil intake and pupil performance and possible…

This policy brief revisits the long and storied literature on whether money matters in providing a quality education. Increasingly, political rhetoric adheres to the unfounded certainty that money doesn't make a difference in education, and that reduced funding is unlikely to harm educational quality. Such proclamations have even been used to…

Background: Competitive foods and beverages are available on most US school campuses. States and school districts are adopting nutrition standards to regulate these products, but few studies have reported on the extent to which schools are able to adhere to competitive regulations. The purpose of this study was to describe the extent to which…

Accountability policies imply much about high school teachers' abilities and willingness to use state assessment data to improve instruction. This study asked what teacher- and school-level variables best predict how frequently teachers use state assessment data and how much instructional benefit they derive from use of data. Research has…

This study examined how self-efficacy beliefs might be used to inform leadership regarding accountability. A survey of principals was used to investigate the degree to which they believed the goals of federal and state school measures were actually attainable, and to what degree they believed their leadership helped achieve these goals. The…

The world of educational policy is governed by multiple interpretations, abstractions, and processes that have considerable intended and unintended consequences for beneficiaries. A result of the American political system, state-level educational policy often varies from context to context. These variations can translate into different educational…

As they wait to see how the latest push for common national standards plays out, some states are putting off or slowing the revision of their own academic standards to avoid wasted effort and spending. At least four states--Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania--have halted revision of their standards for mathematics or English/language…

Background/Context: The article presents the outcomes of international comparative anthropological (qualitative) research on multiculturalism, citizenship, and nation building in schools in Paris, Berlin, London, and Rotterdam. The findings presented here are based on fieldwork carried out over a period of 1 year at secondary schools in the Dutch…

The paper argues that access to public infrastructure plays a crucial role on the presence of private schools in a community, as it could not only minimise the cost of production, but also ensure a high return to private investment. Results using community, school and child/household-level PROBE survey data from five north Indian states provide…

We conducted an action research study with a group of EFL teachers in our local area in order to establish the grounds for the use of the European Language Portfolio (ELP) and the Common European Framework of Reference in local state schools. This paper reports on the way we conducted this study and the cycles we went through, specifically…

Academies (state schools owned and run by private sponsors on a non-profit basis) are a key element in Labour's education agenda. Proposals to set up Academies, in most cases by taking over existing schools, have provoked local campaigns of opposition in many areas. Replacing a Local Authority with an Academy entails a process of consultation.…

Everyone knows it takes money to make money (although not necessarily to earn it), and that certainly applies to development departments. The cost of raising money can be significant; even the most streamlined operations spend about a dime to raise a dollar, and most spend closer to a quarter. For some, the cost is downright embarrassing. It…

The Study of School Turnaround is an examination of the implementation of School Improvement Grants (SIG) authorized under Title I section 1003(g) of the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act" and supplemented by the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009." "Baseline Analyses of SIG Applications and SIG-Eligible…

This article presents the evaluation findings of an education policy initiative that involved the employment of facilitators to broker the policy and its implementation. An Australian state's education authority piloted the employment of physical activity facilitators to expedite the implementation of "Smart Moves" in schools, a…