This article explores the ways in which adult immigrants engaged in discussion about immigration news at a web design course during the passing of Senate Bill 1070 in Arizona. Drawing on the method and theory of mediated discourse analysis, two focal interactions reveal the diverse positions that students took up in relation to anti-immigrant…

When the Higher Education Consortium for Special Education (HECSE) convened in January 2016 in Washington, we celebrated both IDEA's and HECSE's 40th anniversaries. As we reflected on those two anniversaries, the convictions that generated this special issue became increasingly evident: the irrevocable significance of the impact of public policy…

This article examines the symbolic power of language to construct and convey disabling discourses, albeit ample rhetoric, on the need to reinstate and safeguard disabled people's human rights and entitlements. The role of language and its discursive ramifications need to be explored and problematized in the light of legal mandates and…

In this article the author revisits an important book: Brian Simon's "Bending the Rules: the Baker reform of education." Written by a key figure in the history of the journal FORUM as well as in the history of education, Simon's book documented the features of the Education Reform Bill of 1987 (the precursor to the Education Reform Act…

This article combines practitioner insight and research evidence to chart how principles of partnership and paramountcy have led to birth family contact becoming the expected norm following contested adoption from care in Northern Ireland. The article highlights how practice has adapted to the delay in proposed reforms to adoption legislation…

The EU represents a transforming educational space, where national and supranational boundaries in educational governance are becoming blurred. The EU has become an important actor in educational governance and an important arena for policy learning and transfer. This paper explores how the process of reshaping the educational space manifests…

Since 1995, the National Department of Education has developed a number of policies to give effect to the proposed transformation outlined in White Paper 1 (Notice 196 of 1995) and in subsequent legislation. A range of Acts and policies were introduced, many of them dealing with how religion should be dealt with in schools and it culminated in the…

In October 2014, U.S. secretary of education Arne Duncan announced the Obama administration's new "education equity initiative," explaining that the president could not "continue to wait" for Congress to act "on behalf of vulnerable children." The centerpiece of this initiative was a 37-page "Dear Colleague"…

Education programs in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields are intended to enhance the nation's global competitiveness. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported in 2012 that there were more than 200 federal STEM education programs in fiscal year 2010. Since then, this portfolio of programs has changed. GAO was…

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014 offers multiple opportunities to align the workforce development efforts of these stakeholders through structural measures and targeted support. In this paper, the authors examine ways that WIOA can influence a state's job training environment and highlight the crucial role of community…

Student data privacy was a priority issue in state legislatures in 2016, though as expected, states passed fewer student data privacy bills into law than they did in 2014 and 2015. The privacy conversation has evolved since 2014, and now states have the ability to borrow from each other: California's 2014 Student Online Personal Information…

Barbabra Luborsky links the medical field and Montessori pedagogy to address atypical attention in children through the lens of the occupational therapist. She provides an overview of attention and sensory processing disorders and then informs about particular diagnoses, particularly ADHD and its comorbidity with other diagnoses. Her specific…

The Every Students Succeeds Act (ESSA) directs states and districts to identify equity gaps in students' access to excellent educators and transformative school leaders. States are encouraged to use Title II funds strategically in order to identify and remedy these gaps. A new report from The Education Trust draws on ESSA documents and state…

The McKinney-Vento Act was originally authorized in 1987 and originally sponsored programs to provide services to the homeless. The McKinney-Vento Act is designed to address the challenges that homeless children and youths have faced in enrolling, attending, and succeeding in school. Under the McKinney-Vento Act, State educational agencies (SEAs)…

The U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) released joint guidance on January 7, 2015, reminding states, school districts, and schools of their obligations under federal law to ensure that English Learners (ELs) have equal access to a high-quality education and the opportunity to achieve…