Higher education systems in Europe are currently undergoing profound transformations. At the macro-level, there is an increase in the number of students enrolled, subjects of study offered, and university missions that have gained legitimacy over time. At the second level changes are evident at the level of university governance. New Public…

Children of immigrant backgrounds--children who are immigrants themselves or were born to immigrant parents--are the largest segment of growth in the U.S. school population. In this exploratory interdisciplinary analysis, Filindra, Blanding, and Garcia Coll ask whether the context of policy and political receptivity, even when they are not…

This article argues that post-September 11 political debates and legislation around security necessitates a reconsideration of a right to privacy in Canada. It looks at the proposal for a Canadian Charter of Privacy Rights promoted by Senator Sheila Finestone in the late 1990s and the current challenges of emergent material technologies…

From 2001 to 2009, about 4.5 million students will report some type of educator misconduct during their K-12 schooling, and as many as 9 out of 10 cases may go unreported (Shakeshaft, 2007). Codes of ethical conduct have decreased misconduct cases within other helping professions. Since there has been an increased awareness of teacher behavior, 25…

Information on the divergence between student numbers and delivery hours for the period 2002 to 2007 is provided in this technical paper. The change in hours from one year to the next is decomposed into three effects, one of which is "hours inflation", whereby nominal hours increase over time for the same unit of competency or module.…

This paper is one of a collection of papers written by the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC) to support the use of content review as the basis for establishing communication and computation prerequisites. "Student Success: The Case for Establishing Prerequisites Through Content Review" was adopted at the Fall 2010…

In this report, the National Council on Teacher Quality evaluates key features of 67 undergraduate institutions elementary, secondary and special education teacher preparation in the state of Texas. The authors apply 25 standards that bear directly on the capacity of those programs to attract talented individuals and prepare them to teach…

This study examined teachers' attitudes and beliefs in one over-performing urban/suburban high school of the state-mandated curriculum framework under conditions that I label a continuously uncertain reform effort or a top-down mandated curriculum involving constant mixed-messages as to its content, accountability demands, and future existence.…

According to current research, mental health issues are the leading health problem for Canadian children. Surveys also indicate that fewer than 25% of children are receiving care (Waddell, McEwan, Shepherd, Offord, & Hua, 2005); thus, schools play a key role in assessment, access to services, and possible referral to appropriate outside…

There is a widespread misperception that private schools avoid government oversight or are "unregulated." In fact, private schools are subject to a wide variety of laws and regulations that run the gamut from reasonable rules to ensure health and safety to unreasonable rules that interfere with school curricula, preventing schools from pursuing…

The push to give school districts greater operating flexibility--a grassroots rallying cry eclipsed in recent years by the charter school movement--is seeing a resurgence, as states seek to spur innovation that will help raise student achievement. In Georgia, Governor Sonny Perdue is proposing "performance contracts" that would free…

The extent to which funds under the Title I of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) should be expended on training services has been a topic of discussion by Congress, which is considering reauthorization of WIA. This paper describes a policy initiative by Illinois that requires Local Workforce Investment Areas (LWIAs) under Title I of WIA to expend…

This study examines principal mentoring practices in Wisconsin. Particular attention is paid to practices deemed promising in the literature on mentoring for improving principals' capacity for instructional leadership. The implementation of Wisconsin's policy for teacher and administrator mentoring (PI 34) is also examined. Wisconsin's…

Proponents of school choice policies assume that such policies will create competition between schools for nearby students. This paper discusses the differences between choice and competition in education and why the existence of choice does not necessarily translate to competition. Vouchers and charter schools have been the twin pillars of school…

In this policy brief the author shows that contracts negotiated by local teachers' unions and district administrations allow for more flexibility than conventional views suggest. CBAs (collective bargaining agreements) are quite varied in their contents, and many school boards and unions have used the flexibility inherent in contract negotiations…