In 2002, approximately two thirds of school teachers in the Canadian province of Alberta went on strike. Drawing on media, government and union documents, this case study reveals some contours of the political economy of labor relations in education that are normally hidden from view. Among these features are that the state can react to worker resistance by legally pressuring trade unions and justifying this action as in the public interest. This justification seeks to divide the working class and pit segments of it against each other. The state may also seek to limit discussion and settlements to monetary matters to avoid constraining its ability to manage the workplace or the educational system. This analysis provides a basis for developing a broader theory of the political economy of labor relations in education. It also provides trade unionists in education with information useful in formulating a strike strategy.

Most studies of school achievement use free-lunch eligibility or other basic indicators to adjust for differences in students’ socioeconomic backgrounds. This study determines whether these variables are enough to separate the confounding effects of students’ backgrounds from the main variables of interest in education studies. The Early Childhood Longitudinal Study dataset from the kindergarten class cohort of 1998-99 (ECLS-K) provides an unusually vast array of information regarding children’s home resources and experiences. This plethora of parent-reported data raises questions about which variables researchers should include in their analyses, and it provides an extraordinary opportunity to examine this question. Using a split-sample design, stepwise regression, and multi-level modeling, this study systematically examines over 200 ECLS-K student background variables to determine which factors predict reading and mathematics achievement after typical SES controls are employed. The study identifies several variables that are important supplements to traditional SES measures, including the number of children in the household, mother’s age at first birth, and children’s books at home. Results indicate the extent to which “value added” studies can be flawed when using only basic demographic variables. The findings hold implications for data collection and accountability efforts, including NCLB, teacher evaluation plans, and the design of state longitudinal data systems.

Educators are under tremendous pressure to ensure that their students perform well on tests.Unfortunately, this pressure has caused some educators to cheat.The purpose of this study was to investigate the types of, and degrees to which, a sample of teachers in Arizona were aware of, or had themselves engaged in test-related cheating practices as a function of the high-stakes testing policies of No Child Left Behind. A near census sample of teachers was surveyed, with valid responses obtained from about 5 percent, totaling just over 3,000 teachers. In addition, one small convenience sample of teachers was interviewed, and another participated in a focus group. Data revealed that cheating occurs and that educators can be quite clever when doing so. But how one defines cheating makes it difficult to quantify the frequency with which educators engage in such practices. Our analysis thus required us to think about a taxonomy of cheating based on the definitions of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree offenses in the field of law. These categories were analyzed to help educators better define, and be more aware of others' and their own cheating practices, in an attempt to inform local testing policies and procedures.

Over the past decade the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have represented a transformation of education policies that have entailed important investments. However, the teacher, as a key element in the integration process of ICT, still does not feel trusted this process. One of the most outstanding causes of this deficit confidence is the lack of teaching staff competence in the ICT. Therefore, the aim of this paper is a study of the teachers’ competence on ICT and their relation to the use being made of these technologies, both professional-personal and with their students. For it a survey design has been used. The target population constitutes the teaching staff of centers of primary and secondary education of the Comunidad Valenciana. Information was collected through questionnaires. Starting from the technological and pedagogic competences in TIC, we have been obtained teachers’ consistent competencies profile with four increasing levels: without knowledge, entrance, adoption and innovation. Likewise, we has been a narrow relationship among this profile and the use that the teachers carries out, more closely connected with the personal-professional who with the use with the students. Findings contribute keys to guide the professional development and teacher initial education programs.

This article analyzes the opinions about the system of higher education in Argentina of presidents of private and public universities. The sample consisted of sixteen in-depth interviews with presidents of public and private universities. In the 1990s Argentina, similarly to other Latin American and European countries, initiated profound reforms of its university system The analysis of the interviews shows, that although Argentina's higher education system was traditionally organized around the ethos of public universities and only recently a new but increasingly influential private sector was developed, the opinions of the presidents of both types of universities is rather similar.. We concluded that the type of governance, public or private, is not the most influential dynamic in the opinions of the presidents of these universities, but the particular history and institutional traditions are better explanatory variables.

This study examined the degree to which student-level variables that have been established in the relevant literature as predicting academic achievement (perception of scholastic competence, perceptions of educational opportunities, motivation, and acculturative stress) accurately predicted student group membership in two districts with disparate language acquisition methods (Structured English Immersion and bilingual education) . The samples included Hispanic English Language Learners (ELLs) in middle elementary school, ages 9-11 (N= 295). Students' perceptions of scholastic competence, perceptions of educational opportunities, motivation, and acculturative stress contributed to the accurate prediction of 73.3% of the participants' group membership. Post-hoc analyses of group differences resulted in moderately higher scholastic competence and perceived educational opportunities for ELLs in the Texas district, whereas acculturative stress, perceived discrimination, and maladaptive motivation scores were moderately higher for ELLs in the Arizona district. ELLs in the SEI group, however, also had slightly higher scores on adaptive motivation. Competing hypotheses and policy implications are discussed in the context of prior research.

We analyzed the gap in mathematics standards, assessments and accountability, and teacher licensure and certification requirements in mathematics for elementary grades. We found states delineated mathematics academic standards in specific content areas. Licensure and certification requirements were weak indicators since they lacked the specificity of conceptual and procedural knowledge that could strengthen mathematics content knowledge and inform instructional practices. The most recent changes in licensure and certification requirements intended to affect teacher quality are not reaching a large proportion of elementary teachers; thus, their overall impact on teacher quality is likely to be limited. We discuss policy strategies for licensure and certification requirements likely to have a broader reach in addressing teacher quality at the elementary grades.

Two interlocking claims are being increasing made around school finance: that states have largely met their obligations to resolve disparities between local public school districts and that the bulk of remaining disparities are those that persist within school districts. These local decisions are described as irrational and unfair school district practices in the allocation of resources between individual district schools. In this article, we accept the basic contention of within-district inequities. But we begin with a critique of the empirical basis for the claims that within-district disparities are the dominant form of persistent disparities in school finance, finding that claims to this effect are largely based on one or a handful of deeply flawed analyses. Next, we present empirical analysis, using national data, of 16-year trends (1990 to 2005) and recent patterns (2005 to 2007) of between-district disparities, finding that state efforts to resolve between-district disparities are generally incomplete and inadequate and that in some states, between-district disparities have actually increased over time.

This work presents reflections about some key factors that help to understand the reasons why in Finland school dropouts are practically nonexistent, while in Puerto Rico they are a significant problem. Several reasons that explain this situation were found. Finland has good student support services, teachers have more academic freedom, social inequalities exist in a smaller scale, schooling including university, and health services are free, and teacher training is more rigorous. Based on the findings of this study, we developed a model to understand school dropout as a complex social system. To develop this model we used a causal diagram, a tool from the theory of dynamic systems.

This historical case study examines the rhetoric, action, and outcomes of educational policy reforms in Egypt during the first quarter-century of the presidency of Mohamed Hosni Mubarak. The findings are based on an extensive review of Egyptian government, international organization, and project documents as well as interviews with key stakeholders. The study focused on proposed and implemented changes in the organization and distribution of various governance and management functions across school/community, district/idarra, governorate/muddiriya, and national/central levels of the education system. During the period under review Egypt experienced movement though uneven toward increased decentralization, with calls for deconcentration of responsibility in 1981, Ministry of Education actions that restricted local decision-making authority in the 1990s, and some concerted efforts toward delegation and devolution of authority as well as responsibility after 2001. In terms of community participation, during this period there were calls for and actions toward implementing broader and deeper forms and degrees of involvement by parents, civil society, and businesses. We draw on the following concepts to analyze a develop an account of these developments: institutional framework, financial resources, system leaders' capacity and political will, civil society's leaders' capacity and political will, global dynamics, and the role of international organizations

This paper presents a review of the literature analyzing six key limitations of standardized evaluations. The six criticisms are the following: the tension that exists between the concept of multiple intelligences and the standardized evaluations, the disregard of components of the real curriculum - which is not necessarily exhausted in the prescribed curriculum, the risks of teaching to the test, the incentives that are generated to cheat or inflate the results of the tests, the lack of consideration of the economic differences of the pupils who are evaluated, and, finally, the limitations of the results of standardized evaluations as predictors of the labour success of the students. This paper concludes that when this type of evaluation is used as the only basis of educational decisions, the costs outweigh the benefits.

The experience of Porto Alegre Citizen school is discussed in this study, being analyzed how this democratic participation based project has produced advances in the educational inclusion issue. The Citizen School project is discussed in the context of conquests and advances within the Brazilian legislation. Education is discussed as a right, which analyses the contradictions of the inclusion process limited by the excludent socioeconomical system. The assumptions and the pedagogical practises which produce the schooling failure are examined by presenting a critical view towards the merit conception-based evaluation. It is discussed the need of rethinking school centering the concerns with inclusion and educators training intended to gather the “different ones” and allow dialogues with the cultural contexts. The ongoing project at the Citizen School is being analyzed as an updated pedagogical practice reference. The data examined is referred to the Municipal net and indicates a rise in enrollments, in the different modalities of attending, in evasion reduction, in failing and shows a drastic decrease of illiteracy in the city. It also testifies a continuance of an integrating, cooperative, solidary, participative and democratic pedagogical practice commited to social inclusion.

In the past half-century, most countries have emphasized the development of human capital as an instrument for economic growth, sustainable development, and improved global competitiveness. However, limited evidence exists on the link between skills development and a country's competitiveness. This paper examines the contribution and association of skills to a country's competitiveness. The study uses panel data from 84 countries in estimating an empirical model. Skills availability, foreign direct investments, secondary education, and technical (engineering) education and training are significant contributors to a country's competitiveness in a technologically changing and demanding world. This dynamic requires institutionalizing high-level technical skills development and on-the-job training programs in various firms that provided company specific and general skills to employees. The study recommends increased participation in secondary education and technically-oriented courses in tertiary education and programs that encourage skills transfer from foreign companies. Foreign direct investment, however, requires a conducive investment environment. Increased collaboration between tertiary institutions and industry is crucial for improved skilled development.

This article is a qualitative analysis of trajectories and leadership formacio´n of twelve scholarly leaders who work at five institutions in the state of Morelos, in Mexico. We analyze three categories of formative experiences: a) formative experiences within the family, b) scholar and professional formative experiences and c) formative experiences aside from the domestic, scholar and professional spheres. Based on our study, we suggest the following factors in the formacio´n of leaders: sociomoral formacio´n, mentoring by support figures and guide figures, search for autonomy, exposure to problematic situations that represent a challenge, setting of long-range goals, generation of dispositions to resist an instrumental logic, exposure to leadership figures, as well as an increase in social and cultural capital. We emphasize the importance of the existential as well as the ethical and political dimensions in leadership formation.

Drawing on interview data from reading policy actors in California, Michigan, and Texas, this study applied Kingdon's (1984, 1995) multiple streams model to explain how the issue of reading became prominent on the agenda of state governments during the latter half of the 1990s. A combination of factors influenced the status of a state's reading policy agenda, including feedback from parents, teachers, and business groups; student achievement data; political pressure from the state administration; regional and national interest; a pervasive belief that reading is a building block for student success; and a widespread perception that the decline in reading achievement was symbolic of the failure of public schools. In addition, governors promoted reading to high agenda prominence by influencing which issues were placed on the decision agenda (agenda setting) and which alternatives were given serious attention (alternative specification). Finally, the findings suggest that the applicability of Kingdon's national-level model to the state level may depend on both the issue being examined and the participation of the state executive branch.

This article explores school and community leaders' beliefs about standards-based reform and the purposes of local schooling in a single rural community in the western United States. The study used interviews of 11 community and school leaders in the community. Participants engage in a balancing act between serving local interests and satisfying extralocal mandates. They care about both the students they serve and the place they inhabit, and their own assessment of the educational enterprise indicated that state and federal policy had had little constructive influence on either. The conclusion explores critical place-consciousness as a possible tool to refocus rural educators' attention on the intent of the standards-based movement and to ensure that schooling supports individual student success and the needs of rural communities.