Digital Commons Network^™

An Exploration Of Evidence-Based Policy In Ireland: Health And Social Inclusion, Patricia Kennedy, Tomas De Brun, Mary O'Reilly-De Brun, Anne Macfarlane

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Ireland is a small country with a history of a social partnership approach to policy making. This paper considers how the ambition of government to utilise an evidence-based approach to policy making plays out against this partnership agenda. Drawing on the authors' experiences and personal reflections, the paper considers how these issues operate within a number of health and social inclusion policy areas, and it explores the role of stakeholders' expectations and involvement in generating evidence for policy.

Evaluation Of Academic Policy Formulation And Implementation, Transmountain Early College High School, El Paso, Texas, Virginia Margaret Heidemann

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Transmountain Early College High School (TMECHS) opened in August 2008, created by a partnership between the El Paso Community College (EPCC) and the El Paso Independent School District (EPISD), and supported in its conceptualization, start-up, and first few years operation by grant funding and guidance from the Texas High School Project (THSP) and its major foundation funding partners, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, and Communities Foundation of Texas. TMECHS is a T-STEM early college high school located in a large city on the U.S.-Mexico border.

As educational institutions begin implementation of ambitious reform …

Numeracy: Open-Access Publishing To Reduce The Cost Of Scholarly Journals, Todd A. Chavez

Numeracy

Each fiscal year, as academic librarians throughout the United States prepare materials budgets, a national “groan” ensues. Regardless of their format (i.e. print or digital), serial subscription costs are escalating, in the process impacting the role of the library in advancing scholarly communication . This paper examines some of the economic issues concerning open-access (OA) journal publishing. The importance of quantitative literacy is suggested for librarians and academics seeking a better understanding of alternatives to traditional journal subscription models and to anyone considering ventures into OA publishing. Quantitative literacy is essential for managing alternatives to the rising cost of scholarly …

The Impacts Of School-Business Partnerships On The Early Labor-Market Success Of Students, John H. Bishop, Ferran Mane

John H Bishop

[Excerpt] This chapter examines the effects of improved signaling of student achievement in high school on the labor market success of recent high-school graduates. The chapter is organized into three sections. In the first section, we reproduce the argument that Bishop put forth in 1985 that better signaling of student achievement to employers would improve the quality of the jobs that recent high-school graduates could obtain and strengthen incentives to learn. In the second section, we analyze longitudinal data on eight graders in 1988 and attempt to measure the effect of school-employer partnerships on their subsequent success in the labor …

Bush’S Brain (No, Not Karl Rove): How Bush’S Psyche Shaped His Decision Making, Robert Maranto, Richard E. Redding

Education Reform Faculty and Graduate Students Publications

We will summarize the most systematic work on George W. Bush's psyche, stressing that leader personality traits should not be judged as good nor bad: Rather traits which match some situations mismatch others. SAT scores and other available measures indicate that Bush has sufficient intelligence to serve as president. Yet the best studies, in which raters evaluate statements without being aware of their source, suggest that Bush lacks integrative complexity and thus views issues without nuance (Thoemmes and Conway 2007). The leading personality theory (the “5-Factor Model”), as measured by the NEO Personality Inventory, suggests that Bush is highly extraverted …

The Role Of Program Evaluations In Improving And Sustaining State-Supported School Counseling Programs: A Cross Case Analysis Of Best Practices, Ian Monteg Martin

Open Access Dissertations

Recent work has shown that many state supported school counseling programs have not developed working statewide program evaluation schemas. This study examined two exemplary examples of state level program evaluation. Mixed-method case studies were created and then analyzed across cases to reveal common themes and best practices. The findings indicated that these cases were able to build statewide evaluation capacity within very different contexts.

Policy Options To Finance Public Higher Education In Afghanistan, Frank Mcnernery

Open Access Dissertations

While recovering from decades of conflict and trying to adjust to an incipient free market economy, public higher education in Afghanistan is currently confronted with rapidly increasing enrollment and inadequate government financing. The imbalance between high demand for and insufficient supply of higher education has led to a decrease in the quality of education and an urgent need to develop non-state sources of funding. Using Johnstone’s (1986) diversified funding model as the conceptual framework, this exploratory case study reports actors’ attitudes and perceptions of the financing policy options for Afghan public higher education and the impediments to introduce this model …

Confronting Challenges, Overcoming Obstacles: A Conversation About Quantitative Literacy, Bernard L. Madison, Lynn A. Steen

Numeracy

An edited transcript of the opening session of a workshop on quantitative literacy held Oct. 10-12, 2008 at Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota. The workshop, which brought together interdisciplinary teams from two dozen colleges and universities, was sponsored by the Quantitative Inquiry, Reasoning, and Knowledge (QuIRK) Initiative at Carleton and the Washington-based Project Kaleidoscope. Two mathematicians in the forefront of quantitative literacy initiatives over the period 1997-2008, Lynn Arthur Steen and Bernard L. Madison, converse about attitudes, obstacles, changes and accomplishments. The conversation, structured as an interview, begins with the relationship between mathematics and quantitative literacy and moves through issues central …

Safety Changes In Blue Ribbon Schools Since The Attack On Columbine High School, Joseph Gust

Dissertations

Measuring school success using a variety of tools is commonplace in America.

For many years, one standard measurement of a school's success was The Blue Ribbon Award from 1982 through 2002. This award quantified success based on schools achieving successful outcomes in a variety of areas with specific criteria.

Blue Ribbon award winning schools are exceptional by Department of Education

standards. They are not exempt from school violence and the issues that plague other

schools. Academic success and awards do not prepare a school for the situation that

occurred at Columbine.

The participants I interviewed were Principals or Designees at …

Culturally Responsive Professional Development Through Conceptual Change; A Case Study Of Substitute Teachers In Urban School Districts, Frank J. Feola

ETD Archive

The purposes of this research were to analyze the influence of participants' experiences on their culturally responsive pedagogical development and consider the policy implications for higher education, schools and school districts, and the state. Four substitute teachers from three urban school districts participated in a professional development experience--autodidactic cultural diversity development--to learn about culturally responsive pedagogy and implement it in their classrooms. Participants' upbringing, collegiate experiences, substitute teaching experiences, and the professional development influenced their development as culturally responsive educators. This research may also be used to inform policy discussions regarding the value and applicability of the substitute teaching experience …

Writing Social Determinants Into And Out Of Cancer Control: An Assessment Of Policy Practice, Stacy M. Carter, Claire Hooker, Heather M. Davey

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

A large literature concurs that social determinants of health (SDH) are demonstrable, important, and insufficiently attended to in policy and practice. A resulting priority for research should be to determine how the social determinants of health can best be addressed. In this paper we support the more effective transfer of social determinants research into policy by: (1) describing a qualitative analysis of thirty-two cancer control policy documents from six English-speaking OECD countries and two transnational organizations, demonstrating great variability in the treatment of social determinants in these policies; (2) critiquing these various policy practices in relation to their likely impact …

Writing The Risk Of Cancer: Cancer Risk In Public Policy, Claire Hooker, Stacy M. Carter, Heather M. Davey

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

In this paper we examine how cancer risk is written in cancer policy documents from the English speaking OECD nations. We offer an audit of the multiple ways in which cancer risk is conceptualised and presented in health policy and professional contexts with the long term aim of comparing this with lay conceptualisations. Our study sampled cancer policy documents produced by six nations, the World Health Organization and the International Union for Cancer Control since 2000 and analysed them iteratively through questions and codes. Whilst the documents contained a comprehensive range of concepts and locations for cancer risk, our analysis …

From The Margins To The Mainstream And Back Again: A Comparison Of Lifelong Learning In South Korea And The United States, In Tak Kwon, Fred M. Schied

Adult Education Research Conference

This paper compares the development of lifelong learning in South Korea and the United States. The paper examines how and why lifelong learning has achieved mainstream status in Korea while remaining on the margins in the US.

Key Issues And Future Directions In The Nexus Of Literacy Research, Policy And Practice., Pauline J. Harris

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

Relationships among literacy research, policy and practice continue to constitute a contentious issue in the context of literacy policy reforms in Australia and overseas. Referring to these relationships as the Literacy Nexus, this paper explores the nexus in terms of research/policy relationships; policy/practice relationships; and practice/research relationships. The paper provides a review of related literature on these relationships, based on Australian and U.S. research studies and reports published since 2000; and highlights key issues inherent in these relationships. These issues include ways in which literacy research is used in literacy policy and the consequences of this use for the fields …

Influencing Policy And Practice Through Research On Early Childhood Education, Brenda Taggart, Iram Siraj-Blatchford, Kathy Sylva, Edward Melhuish, Pam Sammons

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

This paper presents the scientific evidence from one study that has informed Early Years policy in the U.K. It begins with a description of the policy context in the early 1990s and shows how research was used to inform a decade of policy innovation. There have been many studies of ways that research has informed practice but fewer on instances of research shaping policy. This paper is one step in that direction, as advocated by Whitty (2007) and Huw, Nutley and Smith (2001).

Using A Sensemaking Approach To Explore Interrelationships Between Policy And Practice, Barbra Mckenzie

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

Increasingly the literature concerning change to schooling systems tends to use language more readily associated with that of business. Several researchers (Vinson, 2001; Hargreaves & Fullan, 1998; Fullan, 1999) warn of the shift from earlier views of education, towards a more recent perception that appears to consider education as a type of marketable commodity. Increasingly we are moving into a climate where schools are compared to business organizations, where the language of business and terms like knowledge economy (DEST, 2003:1) and middle managers (Fullan, 1999:16) are becoming more commonplace to describe the role of the modern school in society. This …

Investing In The Future Of The Indian It Industry: Prospects And Policy, Shyam Sunder

Shyam Sunder

No abstract provided.

Killing Mayberry: The Crisis In Rural American Education, James A. Bryant Jr.

The Rural Educator

The article provides an overview of the turbulent and challenging times facing teachers and administrators in rural schools. The article examines literature from over the past decade to paint a full picture of the economic and social pressures exerting themselves in rural America and the impact these forces are having in rural schools. This work argues that rural education has been ignored too long by policy makers and even many Americans, and that this crime of omission has had disastrous consequences for many small communities. The article concludes with an examination of some of the tentative but hopeful steps that …

Investigating Relationships Between Literacy Research, Policy And Practice: A Critical Review Of The Related Literature, Pauline J. Harris, Barbra Mckenzie, Honglin Chen, Lisa K. Kervin, Philip R. Fitzsimmons

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

This paper is driven by concern that the fields of literacy research, policy and practice do not interact with one another in ways that are congruent or productive, as evidenced in recent government literacy reports in Australia and overseas. This concern leads us to interrogate the nature of the relationship between literacy research, policy development and classroom practice. With a view to understanding how this relationship might be enhanced, this paper provides a literature review of the nexus between literacy research, policy and practice, the issues that arise therein, and directions for further investigation, including our ARC Discovery Nexus Project …

The Third Way To Adult Education, Judith Walker

Adult Education Research Conference

This paper examines how Third Way politics play out in policy discourse in adult education in Canada and New Zealand. It then places these findings in the larger context of the debates on “second modernity.”

Build It But They May Not Come: Subjective Factors In Participation Decisions Among Under-Represented Groups, Ralf St. Clair

Adult Education Research Conference

This discussion presents a model for thinking about participation in learning for under-represented groups. The model is designed specifically to be useful for thinking about this question in the context of policymaking rather than a re-theorization of participation itself.

Thwarted Ambition: The Role Of Public Policy In University Development, Michael N. Bastedo

New England Journal of Public Policy

Paradoxically, Massachusetts is the home of a world-class system of private higher education and a struggling system of public higher education. The influence of private higher education and persistent indifference by state government repeatedly thwarted UMass’s ambition to increase its stature on the national scene. The result was a “boom or bust” cycle of financial support that made rational planning and institutional expansion extremely difficult, exacerbating the university’s late start toward world-class status.

Institutional Mission Vs. Policy Constraint?: Unlocking Potential, Ellen Hazelkorn

Articles

The research-intensive and competitive knowledge society is putting HEIs (higher education institutions) under the spotlight. While many HEIs around the world do not proclaim or wish to be research-intensive institutions the majority desire to intensify their research activity because it is seen as a sine qua non of higher education. Accordingly, HEIs are busy making critical strategic choices concerning human resources, the research environment, the teaching-research nexus, organisational and management structure, and funding. Governments are also making choices, using policies and financial instruments to help shape institutional mission, priorities and HE systems. But if governments genuinely desire to widen access …

Statement Of Policy Governing Patents And Copyrights, University Of Maine System

General University of Maine Publications

The University of Maine System's statement of policy governing patents and copyrights

A Research Based District Wide Discpline Policy, From Goal To Approval, Timothy Craig Morello

All Graduate Projects

In the late 1990's the Wenatchee School District realized that the community and staff were dissatisfied with the state of discipline in the district. The schools, as is the case in the community at large, could no longer rely on traditional approaches to dealing with a growing number of incidents of anti-social behavior. A lack of discipline appeared to be at the root of the problem in the home and subordinately the root of the problem in the schools (McEvoy & Welker, 2000). In addition, disciplinary practices in many schools are inconsistent and ineitable (Skiba & Peterson, 2000). The District …

Health Claims Policy, Heather Yeatman

Faculty of Social Sciences - Papers (Archive)

Abstract presented at The 2nd Omega Workshop, 30 September 2002, Adelaide, Australia.

A History Of Public Radio In An Urban Community: Its Impact Upon Education, Culture, Public Opinion And Policy, Barry K. Graham

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

In a relatively short history, Public Radio in Hampton Roads has emerged as a most important cultural and educational asset to the urban community. The dynamic growth of the Hampton Roads urban infrastructure is the result of several political, economic, and cultural factors. Public Radio has been one of these factors and has served as a catalyst for change and growth in the community. This case study focuses upon Public Radio stations WHRO-FM and WHRV-FM and the elements which brought about their historical development.

The study presents a history of events that marked the beginning of Public Radio in Hampton …

Internet Use Policies And Implications For Health Education: A Survey Of Nebraska School Board Presidents, David Dennison, David Corbin, Manoj Sharma, Neal Grandgenett

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes and practices of school board presidents in Nebraska pertaining to Internet use policy-making and its implications on health education. This study utilized a mailed written survey. The data indicated that public school policy makers have significantly different perceptions of health education than of specific selected health education components, i.e., they are not very concerned about access to Internet health education information in general, but they are very concerned about specific areas of health education. Specifically, board presidents were most concerned about access to information about Internet sexuality followed by drug …

A Profile Of The Nigerian Educational System And Policy Options For Improved Educational Development For Rapid Economic Growth And Development, M O. Ojo, O. Adesanya, A. Bamidele

CBN Occasional Papers

Attempts is made in this paper to situate Nigeria's educational system within the context of her overall economic development in view of the universal acceptance of the ultimate importance of human resources in determining the level and manner of economic progress. The various ways in which education contributes to the process of economic development are explored. A statistical review and appraisal of the Nigerian Educational system show that given its current level, the system is under-developed as reflected by an overall adult literacy ratio of 49.5% and primary school enrollment level of 63.5% of the primary school-age cohort as at …

School Systems In Transition: The Future Of Government School Education In Australia, Max Angus

Research outputs pre 2011

Since the mid-eighties state governments have initiated the restructuring of the public school systems in order to improve their effectiveness and efficiency. However, after controversial beginnings, the commitment to the principles underpinning the reforms has weakened. The reality lags far behind the loosely-applied rhetoric of devolution, accountability and productivity. While in this disabling transitional state, schools are now subjected to a new wave of change propelled by the economic restructuring agenda of the Commonwealth Government. Extraordinary expectations are being set for schools as a consequence of policies designed to connect the outcomes of education more closely to the requirements of …