Frederick M. Hess and Michael Q. McShane have gathered a diverse group of scholars to examine the shifting federal role in education across the presidential administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. While the administrations were vastly different, one thing remained constant: an ongoing and significant expansion of the federal role in…

"Expanding Choice in Elementary and Secondary Education: A Report on Rethinking the Federal Role in Education" presents a seemingly egalitarian prescription for the federal government to expand school choice. An examination of the arguments and evidence for increasing choice, however, reveals at least three important shortcomings. First, the…

For all the national and even international debate about the state of American education, public schooling in the U.S. is still a local matter--and the school district remains its hub. As administrators know, there's nothing abstract about the process of getting millions of students into their seats, assuring they receive the instruction they're…

This report traces the development of the workplace apprenticeship system and college-based pre-apprenticeship training in Canada's most western province, British Columbia. The Canadian system is mildly distinctive in an international context and within Canada, British Columbia is increasingly distinctive. Federal government influence has been…

Education advocates are already bracing for protracted budget battles in the coming year, even as they sort the winners and losers in the bill approved by Congress late last week financing the U.S. Department of Education and the rest of the federal government through September. The hard-fought agreement followed months of wrangling between…

President Barack Obama's proposed $49.7 billion budget for the U.S. Department of Education is more than just a spending blueprint: Department officials portray it as a fundamental reimagining of the agency's structure and management. Under the fiscal 2011 proposal unveiled last week, a roster of 38 relatively small, targeted grant programs would…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Focus on Dropout Factories: Associated Press Article Spotlights Low-Performing High Schools, Draws Criticism from Many School…

"Chronicle of Higher Education" presents an abundant source of news and information for college and university faculty members and administrators. This February 11, 2005 issue of "Chronicle of Higher Education" includes the following articles: (1) "A Giant Eye on the Stars" (Lloyd, Marion); (2) "Taiwanese…

Every great war in which the United States has played a part has been followed by educational developments of supreme national importance. As the result of the Revolutionary War the Federal Government acquired a vast public land domain from which it has carved generous grants to the States. Those became the foundation of systems of free public…

In the past 10 years many countries have implemented large-scale reforms of their public educational systems. The origins of reform programs in four countries--Canada, the United States, England, and New Zealand--are presented here. The text focuses on four aspects of reform: (1) the sources of reforms as initially proposed by governments, the…

The politics of education is driven by a complex interrelationship among politicians, private foundations, teachers' unions, special-interest groups, school administrators, boards of education, courts, and the "knowledge industry." Chapter 1 focuses on the major actors in the politics of education, and chapter 2 analyzes the…

Many countries' reform efforts are government-directed programs that are driven by the government rather than by educators or bureaucrats. A comparative analysis of this type of reform, with a focus on Canada, is presented here. The paper raises questions about the international character of education reform by comparing the Canadian experience…