Education Commons^™

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 …

His Story/Her Story: A Dialogue About Including Men And Masculinities In The Women’S Studies Curriculum, Beth Berila, Jean Keller, Camilla Krone, Jason A. Laker, Ozzie Mayers

Jason Laker

Three faculty members and two program directors in Women's/Gender/Men's Studies contend that Men's Studies can provide an important complement to Women's Studies programs. The director of Women's Studies at Saint Cloud State University, Minnesota, discusses the incorporation of gender studies into Women's Studies programs; a program director describes the College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University's (CSB/SJU) evolution from a position where many Women's Studies faculty were wary of Men's Studies to support of the incorporation of Men's Studies as an explicit requirement of two required courses for their Gender and Women's Studies minor; two longtime Gender and Women's Studies faculty …

Lifelong Learning For Older Persons In Hong Kong, Sze Sze, Stephanie Hui

Theses & Dissertations

Lifelong learning (LL) has been widely regarded as one of the activities that can enhance well-being of the society and benefit older persons in terms of psychological, physical, mental, and cognitive well-being. In foreign countries like the Unites States of America, the United Kingdom, Finland, France, Australia, and also China, LL among older persons had been developed successfully. Hong Kong, in contrast, has no systematic planning for the development of LL even though the aged population is increasing rapidly. This research aims at constructing a LL model for older persons in Hong Kong. The theoretical framework of study focused on …

The Challenge Of Inner-City Education, Lois Libby

Education Faculty Publications

There are two Connecticuts described in public education circles: One Connecticut includes a set of school systems that are suburban, educating primarily white and/or Asian students. The other set of Connecticut schools systems is urban, comprised primarily of students of color, and of low socio-economic status. The purpose of this chapter is to focus on the latter set of schools, provide some history of their development, look at the indicators of poor progress in more detail, review options of ameliorating the urban school systems, including assessments of state efforts so far, and offer some perspectives and conclusions.

The Challenge Of Higher Education, Steven Michels

Political Science & Global Affairs Faculty Publications

The spiraling cost of education, the spread of technology, and the competitive nature of the job market have changed the very notion of what education should be and who should pay for it.

This chapter proposes a series of practical reforms, designed to work within the existing structure of higher education. The underlying assumption is that higher education in Connecticut is best served by allowing the natural forces of the market to determine the direction of growth and development. Minimal government interference will mean the greatest amount of choice and the highest quality of education for students in the state.

Systemic High School Reform In Two States: The Serendipity Of State-Level Action, Edmund T. Hamann

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Maine and Vermont have been national leaders in state-level coordination of high school reform. Both recently developed almost interchangeable, new, voluntary, statewide frameworks that describe multiple ways high schools should change. Both frameworks—Promising Futures (Maine Commission on Secondary Education 1998) and High Schools on the Move (Vermont High School Task Force 2001)—were published in book form and include extensive bibliographies grounding their claims that they are research based. Both frameworks recommend principles and practices for improving high schools for all students. Both frameworks were drafted primarily by leading local educators with only modest support from experts based beyond the …

Recovery With Results, Not Rhetoric, Joseph Marrone, Heike Boeltzig

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

This report was undertaken by staff from the Institute for Community Inclusion at the University of Massachusetts Boston pursuant to a task order from the Office of Disability and Employment Policy within the U.S. Department of Labor. While the great majority of the funding was provided by ODEP with an additional small amount allocated by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the intent of this report was to provide guidance to both ODEP and the Employment Training Administration. This focus is meant to assist them in their respective roles …

Desafios Da Constituição Europeia À Teoria Constitucional, Paulo Ferreira Da Cunha

Paulo Ferreira da Cunha

The project of the “Treaty that establishes a Constitution for the Europe”, beyond its political consequences, puts some challenges to the classical constitutional theory. At first sight, it seems completely heterodox towards canon constitutional tendencies, and first of all in what concerns the constituent power classical theories. However, a more rigorous analysis of the history of the modern constitutionalism and its founding texts, mainly French, can lead us to detect very revealing bridges between the liberal modern constitutionalism of the XVIIIth century and the present constitution making of a codified European Constitution. The “treaty” formula that was adopted also represents …

Public Opinion About Measuring And Reporting Of Student Body Mass Index, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

In response to growing public concern about childhood obesity, the 2003 Arkansas General Assembly passed a measure requiring that school officials measure and report to parents each student’s body mass index (BMI) annually (§20-7- 135). Beginning in the 2003-2004 school year, schools were required to do the following: • include as a part of a student health report to parents an annual body mass index percentile by age for each student; and • to annually provide parents with an explanation of the possible health effects of body mass index, nutrition, and physical activity. This measure was one element of a …

Interview With Dr. Charles Watson, Arkansas Department Of Education, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

No abstract provided.

Interview With Dr. Ken James, Arkansas Department Of Education, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

No abstract provided.

Highly Qualified Teachers, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

One of the key features of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 is a requirement that all teachers in core academic areas be “highly qualified” before the 2005-2006 school year. Even more quickly, by the end of the 2002-2003 school year, all newly hired teachers in Title I schools had to be highly qualified. The core academic areas— which must be taught by a “highly qualified” teacher—are English, reading or language arts, math, science, arts and foreign language, economics, geography, civics or government, and history. Teachers of special education and English language learner students are not required …

No Child Left Behind Act Of 2001: An Overview, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, the cornerstone of the Bush Administration’s plan to reform K-12 education, strengthens significantly the federal role in education through sweeping reforms to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The stated legislative intent of the NCLB Act is “to close the achievement gap with accountability, flexibility, and choice, so that no child is left behind” (PL-107-110 [20 U.S.C. §6301, et seq.], 2001). Key provisions of the measure, for both Title I and non-Title I schools, are as follows: • accountability for education results through annual standardized testing and through additional standards …

Understanding Adequate Yearly Progress, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

No abstract provided.

No Child Left Behind And Act 35, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The Student Assessment and Educational Accountability Act or Arkansas Act 35 represents an ambitious attempt to develop and articulate a strategic plan for ensuring that all students in Arkansas are meeting grade-level standards in reading and math. The legislation describes the types of testing schools must implement each year, how schools and districts should report data, how data should be used to inform staff development, and the sanctions students and schools will face if they fail to meet state standards.

School Finance Litigation And Adequacy Studies, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The adequacy approach to challenging school funding systems has proven the most successful of the waves of finance litigation, and the approach serves as the foundation for new or ongoing litigation and reform in many states today, including Arkansas. The standards reform movement has provided courts with a way to measure plaintiffs’ claims that school finance systems do not provide for an adequate education, and many courts have found school funding formulae unconstitutional. In this paper, we review the history of school finance litigation across the United States and focus specifically on cases related to educational adequacy. In the final …

Taking Care Of Business: Advertising, Commercialism, And Implications For Discourse About Schools, Deron R. Boyles

Educational Policy Studies Faculty Publications

This essay challenges the long-standing notion that the overriding purpose of U.S.A. public schools should be to produce future workers for corporate America. It questions the current discourse-the language we use when we talk about schooling, teaching, and learning. In effect, this essay takes exception to the undergirding assumption that public schools are primarily in existence as avenues for private gain. The claim is that a new language of inquiry and critique is needed in order for teachers and students to realize a significant, if untapped potential for U.S.A. schooling: namely, critical analysis of the taken-for-granted.

Placing Arkansas School Funding Data In The National Context, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

In November 2002, the Arkansas Supreme Court found the Arkansas school funding system to be unconstitutional. The decade long court battle, Lake View v Huckabee, concluded when the Supreme Court determined that the state needed to develop a new system to provide a “general, suitable and efficient system of free public schools equally available to all" as called for by the Arkansas Constitution (Article 14, § 1). Arkansas, however, is not alone in being taken to court over the equity and adequacy of its school funding system. Since 1960, over 40 states’ educational funding systems have been legally challenged. Since …

Access To Training For Mature Workers Through One-Stop Career Centers In Massachusetts, Francis G. Caro, Kelly Fitzgerald

Gerontology Institute Publications

The major purpose of this research is to determine the extent to which career centers in Massachusetts are providing mature workers with access to federally funded training. The research is based on two large administrative data sources: The MOSES database made available by the Massachusetts Department of Employment and Training (now Division of Career Services and Division of Unemployment) and a customer service database maintained by The Career Place, a career center in Woburn, MA. The MOSES data file provided for this research includes data on user characteristics and service transactions for all career centers in Massachusetts from July 1, …

Effective School Reform, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

At the forefront of education research and policy agendas is an effort to ensure that all children, especially those in low performing, high-poverty schools, get a quality education. The question of which programs and strategies are most effective in reforming K-12 education is complex. School administrators and policymakers throughout the nation are seeking strategies that will help all students to achieve mastery of basic grade-level academic skills as measured by standardized tests. This brief summarizes current research on the characteristics of effective schools and effective teachers. Also, we highlight several comprehensive school reform models with evidence of effectiveness in improving …

Special Masters’ Report, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

The final ruling in the 1992 Lake View School District case was upheld by the State Supreme Court in November 2002 in a decision known as “Lake View III.” The ruling found that the school system for Arkansas failed to meet the mandate in the Arkansas Constitution requiring that the State provide a “general, suitable and efficient system of free public schools equally available to all" (Article 14, § 1) and required that the legislature develop remedies by January 1, 2004. The Arkansas General Assembly convened in a Special Session from December 8, 2003 to February 6, 2004 to address …

Does Size Matter? School Consolidation Policy Issues In Arkansas, Joshua H. Barnett, Gary W. Ritter, Christopher J. Lucas

Arkansas Education Reports

Providing a reasonable education for all students in Arkansas is a legal responsibility explicitly mandated by the state’s constitution. Consistent with the long-standing American tradition of “grassroots” control of education, public schools in all states are funded and managed first and foremost at the local level. The federal government can and does enact legislation with which schools must conform. Directly or indirectly, federal mandates provide significant amounts of monies to support particular types of school services and programming. But ultimate responsibility for financing and operating schools devolves on state government. In Arkansas, it has been held, the state must provide …

Alternative Education: A Continued Examination Of How States Are Addressing Alternative Education In Their Schools, Les Carnine, Joshua H. Barnett

Arkansas Education Reports

In an attempt to understand the current preparation level of Arkansas for the Leave No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2002, the current project conducts a preliminary literature and web search to record what other states have done and are doing to prepare for NCLB. A brief synopsis of the history of alternative policies is also included. Results indicate that of the twelve states examined, most states are following a similar pattern with regard to preparing for their “at risk” students and passing similar alternative education policies. Three common characteristics found across the states: defining what alternative education is …

Defining Educational Adequacy, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

In his 2001 ruling of the Lake View case, Judge Kilgore ordered, “an adequacy study is necessary and must be conducted forthwith.” In November 2002, the Arkansas Supreme Court upheld the lower court ruling and mandated that the General Assembly begin an “adequacy study.” Consequently, Act 94 of 2003 created the Arkansas Joint Legislative Committee on Educational Adequacy, which was given primary responsibility for fulfilling the Court’s mandate. The Committee contracted with the national consulting firm of Lawrence O. Picus and Associates to conduct a statewide adequacy study and report the findings to the Committee in the Fall of 2003. …

School Consolidation: Making Sense Of The Consolidation Debate, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

Much scholarly and public debate has centered on whether consolidation of small schools is positive, negative, or neutral for student academic achievement, student social development, and funding efficiency. In an attempt to derive lessons from the research on this issue, we investigated evidence related to: (1) school district consolidation and school size, and (2) spending and academic performance data for schools and districts in Arkansas.

Understanding The Achievement Gap, Sarah C. Mckenzie, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

Educators across Arkansas and the nation are sharpening their focus on “achievement gaps,” or those areas in which less-advantaged students perform poorly compared to their more advantaged peers. The No Child Left Behind Act, nationally, and the Lake View case, in Arkansas, are driving state and local education policymakers to address these achievement gaps to ensure that all student subgroups perform at high standards. Reducing these achievement gaps can have myriad social benefits, not the least of which is reducing racial inequality in educational achievement and future inequality in employment and earnings.

The Relationship Between Maine School Administrative Unit Size, Costs, And Outcomes, David L. Silvernail Phd, James E. Sloan

School Funding - Essential Programs and Services (EPS)

No abstract provided.

The Case For Change : A Review Of Contemporary Research On Indigenous Education Outcomes, Suzanne Mellor, Matthew Corrigan

Australian Education Review

AER 47 examines the research evidence underpinning current government policy developed over the last two decades in an attempt to improve the educational outcomes of indigenous students. It reviews and analyses existing educational research into the precursors and concomitant factors that contribute to educational achievement for students generally and for indigenous students in particular. It argues that current policy is insufficiently underpinned by substantive research, and that changes should be made, both to research methodology and to policy content.

Education Finance Reform In New York: Calculating The Cost Of A Sound Basic Education "In New York City", William D. Duncombe, Anna Lukemeyer, John Yinger

Public Policy and Leadership Faculty Publications

In June, 2003, the New York State Court of Appeals altered the education-finance landscape with its ruling in Campaign for Fiscal Equity v. New York. This ruling called for “[r]eforms to the current system of financing school funding” designed to ensure “that every school in New York City would have the resources necessary for providing the opportunity for a sound basic education.” This ruling addressed a wide range of issues, but also declared that “the funding level necessary to provide City students with the opportunity for a sound basic education is an ascertainable starting point.” This policy brief addresses the …

Time To Make History, Time To Educate Women: A Narrative Of The Life And Work Of Christiana Thorpe Of Sierra Leone, Whitney Mcintyre Miller

Education Faculty Articles and Research

An examination of the life of Christiana Thorpe, a former nun from Sierra Leone who worked to improve education for girls and served as the only woman in a cabinet of nineteen members (as Minister of Education), then worked with the United Nations Development Programme and UNESCO amidst war and rebellion in her country.