"Alabama Education News" is published monthly except for June, July, and December by the Alabama Department of Education. This publication, authorized by Section 16-2-4 of the "Code of Alabama," as recompiled in 1975, is a public service of the Alabama Department of Education designed to inform citizens and educators about…

Purpose: The under-representation of women in the leadership of secondary schooling is a problem common to many developing countries, raising issues of social justice and sustainable development. It has its roots in societal understandings about leadership, the schooling and career aspirations of girls, the organizational characteristics of the…

The "Overview" is a condensation of the full Sixteen Trends book. This abbreviated version provides an economical opportunity to order in bulk and distribute copies to an entire school staff, community groups, or other clients and constituents. The "Overview of Sixteen Trends" is an important tool for raising awareness about the need to scan the…

Play is sometimes said to be paradoxical because it displays one quality and the opposite of that quality at the same time. One of the best examples of this is the copresence of order and disorder. This article explores the differences between orderly and disorderly play. The author emphasizes the ways in which any event can be said to be orderly…

Beyond Grey Pinstripes is a research survey and alternative ranking of business schools that spotlights innovative full-time MBA programs leading the way in integrating social and environmental stewardship into their curriculum and scholarly research. These schools are preparing today's students--tomorrow's leaders--for future market realities by…

Charter schools have recently emerged as popular and effective alternatives to traditional public schools. Less than two decades since charter schools first came on the scene, the nation has 4,578 charter schools dispersed across forty-one states and the District of Columbia. These schools enroll 1.4 million students, and their rapid growth shows…

Each edition of the IDRA Newsletter strives to provide many different perspectives on the issues in education topics discussed and to define its significance in the state and national dialogue. This issue focuses on Student Engagement and includes: (1) Engaging Ourselves to Engage Our Students (Josie Danini Cortez); (2) The Family Friendly…

The last decade has seen significant changes in the interaction between publicly funded higher education institutions and the private sector. This has led not only to collaborations between the public and the private sectors but also to the public higher education sector seeking to learn from and, in some instances, to replicate the private…

Unless we sharply increase the training of homegrown math and science talents, we may suffer negative economic and technological consequences. One means of addressing this challenge has been through specialty schools devoted to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) training. In 1980, the North Carolina School of Science and…

Russian universities rank poorly in international comparisons, and recent suggested reforms will not change this situation. There is an urgent need to find ways to improve the quality of Russia's higher education and to make it more appealing to scientists and to international students. In general, in order for the world to begin to appreciate and…

Researchers have found a strong relationship between improvements in quality and satisfaction, revenue, and cost. However, no study to date investigates the same for higher education. This study investigates whether institutions of higher education have implemented quality improvement programs, and if so, if the results are similar to what has…

This article uses ethnographic research from two Year 8 classes in two middle-sized secondary schools about a kilometre apart in a Swedish west-coast town to examine how new policies for personalised learning have developed in practice, in the performative cultures of modern schools in a commodity society. One school stands in a predominantly…

This article reviews educational literatures that should be relevant to helping individuals understand and improve the lot and life chances of girls and boys who are at risk in a global world. The authors began this review with a vignette from India, a country whose linguistic and ethnic diversity, whose international reputation for advances in…

The final rules for the $4 billion Race to the Top competition give states and districts more leeway in how they intervene in chronically underperforming schools, a subtle but important change that raises new questions about whether the push to turn around struggling campuses will succeed in rehabilitating large numbers of them. Under the…

Elementary teachers often instigate competition among their students through such common statements as: "Students who make 100 on the spelling test may have 10 minutes of extra center time" and "The most creatively written story this week will be placed on the bulletin board." While such pronouncements motivate some students into action, they…