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Digital textbooks will soon be part of every classroom in the United States. This trend accompanies an imperative for schools to facilitate 21st century learning in which educators prepare students to learn and live productively in a global society where accurate and current information is a meaningful part of everyday learning. As technology and the Internet have gained presence in classrooms, instructional materials and activities have become digitally rich. The use of digital textbooks is rapidly gaining ground in education. While colleges and universities have moved headlong into digital textbooks as a means to reduce costs for students, K-12 education is venturing cautiously, but steadily, into using digital textbooks. State laws, many of which have been rewritten to include digital content as an acceptable use of state textbook funding, will serve as catalysts that spur the transition to digital textbooks School librarians can provide school-wide leadership to assist students, teachers, and parent concerns when transitioning to digital textbooks. Working in collaboration with teachers, school librarians promote comprehension through questioning, clarifying, seeking meaning, and discussion. Digital textbooks may represent a way to continue advocacy for the importance of reading as well as for the school librarian's leadership role in technology integration. (Contains 2 tables.) [This report was produced by the Florida State University PALM (Partnerships Advancing Library Media) Center.]

The purpose of this study is to explore aspects and indicators most commonly used to assess the quality of education systems in different countries through the comparison of 12 national publications describing the state of the educational system. To compare indicators the CIPP model was chosen. This model is organized in four main parts: Context, Input, Process and Product. Each main part was then divided into categories based on the research literature (e.g., Input is divided into human, financial and material resources). Based on the CIPP model an electronic database for quality indicators comparison has been designed and implemented. This system is dynamic and easy to update. Using the database it is possible to compare countries according to several criteria (e.g., main parts and categories of the CIPP model, ISCED [International Standard Classification of Education] level, level of data collection). The database is available to the public and is designed for researchers and scholastic decision makers. A first comparison shows that processes at the classroom level are rarely considered, whereas public financial resources as well as achievement results are always included. The study concludes with a discussion of the findings of the comparison, as well as suggestions for future research aimed at further defining relevant indicators for the assessment of education quality." An appendix presents: "The on-line database: structure and functions. (Contains 5 figures and 7 footnotes.) [This paper was produced by INVALSI - National Institute for the Educational Evaluation of Instruction and Training.]

In the midst of the global recession, how have national governments viewed the role of higher education in their evolving strategies for economic recovery? Demand for higher education generally goes up during economic downturns. Which nations have proactively protected funding for their universities and colleges to help maintain access, to help retrain workers, and to mitigate unemployment rates? And which nations have simply made large funding cuts for higher education in light of the severe downturn in tax revenues? This essay provides a moment-in-time review of the fate of higher education among a number of OECD nations and other countries, with a particular focus on the United States, and on California--the largest state in terms of population "and" in the size of its economy. Preliminary indicators show that most nations have not thus far resorted to uncoordinated cutting of funding for higher education that we generally see in US state systems. Their political leaders see higher education as a key to short-term economic recovery, long-term competitiveness, and often their own political viability--particularly in nations with upcoming elections. Further, although this is speculative, it appears that many nations are using the economic downturn to actually accelerate reform policies, some intended to promote efficiencies, but most focused on improving the quality of their university sector and promoting innovation in their economies. One might postulate that the decisions made today and in reaction to the "Great Recession" by nations will likely speed up global shifts in the race to develop human capital, with the US probably losing some ground. The Obama administration's first stimulus package helped mitigate large state budget cuts to public services in 2009-10 and to support expanded enrollments largely at the community college level. But it was not enough to avoid having universities and colleges lay off faculty and staff, reduce salaries and benefits, often eliminating course offerings that slow student progress towards a degree, or making sizable reductions in access in states such as California. States have very limited ability to borrow funds for operating costs, making the federal government the last resort. "In short, how state budgets go, so goes US higher education; whereas most national systems of higher education financing is tied to national budgets with an ability to borrow." Without the current stimulus funding, the impact on access and maintaining the health of America's universities would have been even more devastating. But that money will be largely spent by the 2011 fiscal year (Oct 2010-Sept 2011), unless Congress and the White House renew funding support on a similar scale for states that are coping with projected large budget gaps. That now seems unlikely. The Obama administration announced its proposed 2011 budget in February, including $25 billion in state aid targeted for Medicaid. This is a modest contribution to states that face projected cumulative budget deficits of $142 billion in 2011, and there is uncertainty regarding the final federal budget. This is because Obama's proposal will be debated and voted on in a Congress increasingly focused on stemming the tide of rising federal budget deficits. Without substantially more federal aid to state governments, many public colleges and universities will face another major round of budget cuts. There is the prospect that higher education degree production rates in the US will dip in the near term, particularly in states like California that have substantially reduced access to higher education even as enrollment demand has gone up. (Contains 49 footnotes and 4 figures.) [A version of this paper was presented at the Beijing Forum, University of Peking, November 7, 2009.]

There is an extensive literature on the productivity of universities. Little is known, however, about how different types of leaders affect a university's performance. To address this question, this paper blends quantitative and qualitative evidence. First, I establish that the best universities in the world are led by respected scholars. Next, by constructing a new longitudinal dataset, I show that the research quality of a university improves some years after it appoints a president (or vice chancellor) who is an accomplished researcher. To try to explain why scholar-leaders might improve the research performance of their institutions, I draw from interview data with twenty-six university heads in the United States and United Kingdom. These findings have policy implications for governments, universities, and a range of research and knowledge-intensive organizations. (Contains 7 figures and 27 footnotes.)

Stagnant earnings and growing inequality in the US labor market reflect both a slowdown in the growth of worker skills and the growing matching of good-paying jobs to skilled workers. Improving the ties between colleges, workforce institutions, and employers would help more workers gain the needed skills. Evaluation evidence shows that training programs linked to employers and good-paying jobs are often cost-effective. Helping more states develop such programs and systems would help raise worker earnings and reduce inequality. (Contains 1 table and 41 endnotes.)

The Indiana Choice Scholarship Program has the potential to be the largest school voucher program in the country. Though the authorizing legislation capped enrollment in the program at 7,500 for its first year (the 2011-12 school year), that cap was increased to 15,000 for this year, and will be removed for all subsequent years. With careful management, the program has the opportunity to infuse the Hoosier state with a level of choice previously unrealized across the nation. However, without some careful planning and thoughtful consideration of salient program design details and the informal market infrastructure necessary for the program to thrive, the Indiana Choice Program will not be able to reach its full potential. Private school choice in the United States, writ large, has not sparked the types of systemic changes that advocates envisioned when the first choice plans were enacted. Though the gold-standard analyses of choice programs have found positive results, they have been modest and mostly confined to the students participating in the program. When Milton Friedman first made the economic argument for school choice in the 1950s he envisioned choice and competition increasing quality and decreasing cost for education in both the public and private sector, as it has in the private markets of innumerable goods throughout history. However, it appears that for a variety of reasons, choice has not sparked the supply side responses that the economic models predicted. Why has this happened? Why has choice failed to live up to its hype? In short, functioning choice markets do not simply emerge from the ether. They must be cultivated, both on the demand and supply sides. Too often, advocates have pushed an "if you build it, they will come" program design that has neglected many of the necessary conditions for markets to function. Strong program design can establish the playing field on which choice and competition can drive change, but without the support of institutions and organizations within states, the innovative capacity of any program will be greatly curtailed. In this way, the Indiana Choice Scholarship Program can serve as an interesting case study in the cultivation of choice markets. The newness and enormous potential of the program offers a unique opportunity for a meaningful conversation on school choice markets, both how to design them and how to ensure that they function. By examining both program design and the emergence of the institutions and organizations that are necessary to make markets work, the Hoosier State can be used as a model for the potential for choice programs around the country. (Contains 9 footnotes and 2 footnotes.)

This paper discusses routes by which HIV/AIDS money is dispersed and received. It notes that capturing accurate data on actual spending patterns of large donors can be difficult, as there is no uniform tracking or reporting system and much HIV/AIDS money is spent under the broader category of sexual and reproductive health. Most of the information contained in the first two sections is based on main reports that assess the general manner in which HIV/AIDS money as a whole is being distributed. Moving on from who is providing funds for HIV/AIDS initiatives at global level, it tracks sources and flows from governments, through bilateral and multilateral channels. It does not include estimates of household spending on care and treatment, which cannot be realistically quantified. Information follows on top US and European donors, the international business community and pharmaceutical companies. Later sections look into ways HIV/AIDS funding is being spent, with the proviso, as before, that detailed breakdowns of actual spending are rare. The broadest categories are prevention, care and treatment, orphan support and research. Within the field of ECD vis-a-vis HIV/AIDS, funds are being directed through two main areas of concern--prevention of mother-to-child transmission and the care of orphans and vulnerable children. This paper describes major players in these arenas, showing that efforts are being made by a few agencies through the amount of funding directed along these channels is minimal in contrast to other target areas. Fundamental questions are raised about current donor priorities and there follows some discussion touching areas where new or reallocated HIV/AIDS funding could be directed. Obvious gaps in the provision of money for ECD and HIV/AIDS support are then identified along with opportunities to carry out work fill such gaps. The final section examines what it would take to direct more money to support young children living in the shadow of HIV/AIDS. Including very young children in HIV/AIDS response strategies will ultimately depend on individual communities devising their own solutions. A further section highlights the critical importance of sharing knowledge through networks that communicate and disseminate evidence-based research findings and project evaluations. In conclusion, this paper calls for advocacy to urge that more funding should go to ECD-HIV/AIDS needs and that current funding approaches to dealing with the crisis need, in addition, to be tracked and evaluated, with a view to promoting more and better ways of meeting the unfulfilled needs of very young children affected by HIV/AIDS. (Contains 2 figures.)

This paper continues previous research (N. Moreland and R. Carnwell, 2000) in which the development and background of the Learning Support Needs Questionnaire (LSNQ) were explained. The LSNQ identifies and elicits practical, emotional, and academic learning support needs, and is followed by an action planning process designed to assist the students to address learning needs considered important to student academic success but not met sufficiently. The LSNQ questionnaire was administered to two groups of distributed learning students, one enrolled in an institution in the United States (n=211) and one from the United Kingdom (n=126). While the distance education students in the United States had overall higher expectations of the different types of support than their peers in the United Kingdom, both groups had significant but slightly different learning support needs. The failure to address the significant unmet learning needs by both the learners themselves and the providing institutions is likely to lead to unsatisfactory learning experiences, reduced achievements, and perhaps, student attrition. (Contains 3 tables and 29 references.) (SLD)

American children deserve the one ingredient we know creates stellar learning results: excellent teachers. These teachers produce "well over" today's typical year of learning growth. Without them, even with solid teachers who produce a full year of progress, children who start behind stay behind, and few students get ahead of their beginnings--the antithesis of the American Dream. In contrast, if our nation consistently provides students with excellent teachers, we could close most of our stubborn achievement gaps in just five years, and help many children leap ahead of today's standards. This report explains why every child needs excellent teachers year after year, how the nation can now meet that need at unprecedented scale by reaching more children with excellent teachers, and what changes policymakers must support to make this possible. First, policymakers can speedily "improve the identification" of excellent teachers; the authors explain how. Second, policymakers can "clear the policy barriers" that keep excellent teachers from reaching more students for more pay. The authors outline new policies that would clear these barriers. Third, and of paramount importance, policymakers can "catalyze the will" for schools and districts to put excellent teachers in charge of every student's learning. The authors propose bold solutions to create this will, and they invite others to add to these ideas. Without will-enhancing actions, other policies and education changes will continue to fall short of their potential effects. Excellence for all students must become the new goal, and it is entirely within reach if our nation's schools offer new opportunities for excellent teachers to lead the way. (Contains 7 figures and 38 endnotes.) [Contributions by Sharon Kebschull Barrett. For related reports, see "Seizing Opportunity at the Top: How the U.S. Can Reach Every Student with an Excellent Teacher. Building an Opportunity Culture for America's Teachers. Policy Brief" (ED540000) and "Seizing Opportunity at the Top: Reaching Every Student with Excellent Teachers--Policymakers' Checklist" (ED539996).]

A growing number of American states and school districts require students to meet basic performance standards in core academic subjects at key transition points in order to be promoted to the next grade. We exploit a discontinuity in the probability of third grade retention under a Florida test-based promotion policy to study the causal effect of retention on student outcomes over time. Regression discontinuity estimates indicate large short-term gains in achievement among retained students and a sharp reduction in the probability of retention in subsequent years. The achievement gains from retention fade out gradually over time, however, and are statistically insignificant after six years. Despite this fade out, our results suggest that previous evidence that early retention leads to adverse academic outcomes is misleading due to unobserved differences between retained and promoted students. They also imply that the educational and opportunity costs associated with retaining a student in the early grades are substantially less than a full year of per pupil spending and foregone earnings. (Contains 10 figures, 11 tables, and 19 footnotes.)

As the Latino population grows, the number of Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) in the US is expected to increase (Santiago & Andrade, 2010; Torres & Zerquera, 2012). HSIs are typically defined as 2- or 4-year, accredited, degree-granting, not-for-profit colleges and universities that enroll at least 25 percent full-time Hispanic students (Santiago, 2006, 2007). These institutions appear to play an important role in broadening access to postsecondary opportunities for Hispanic students, particularly in states where access to public flagship institutions is limited (Perna, Li, Walsh, & Raible, 2010). HSIs might alternatively be called "Hispanic Enrolling Institutions," as they are defined by enrollment, not by mission (Gasman, 2008). Thus, the extent to which HSIs are intentionally serving Hispanic students could be called into question, because most HSIs do not foreground their identities as HSIs (Contreras, Malcom, & Bensimon, 2008; Bensimon, Malcom, & Davila, 2010). Studies show mixed results as to whether faculty attitudes and Hispanic student experiences differ between HSIs and non-HSIs (e.g., Bridges, Kinzie, Nelson Laird, & Kuh, 2008; Crisp, Nora, & Taggart, 2009; Hubbard & Stage, 2009; Nelson Laird, Bridges, Morelon-Quainoo, Williams, & Holmes, 2007). To better understand how HSIs affect faculty, student, or administrator experiences, it is necessary to understand the characteristics by which HSIs meaningfully vary. This study addresses the research questions: What are the organizational characteristics, framed as structural-demographic, peer context, and organizational behavior factors, that differentiate among HSIs and make them heterogeneous? What, if any, of these factors distinguish among 4-year HSIs in relation to Hispanic student degree completion? Although about half of HSIs are 2-year institutions, the authors focus on 4-year HSIs in an effort to distinguish among factors related to bachelor's degree completion, defined in this study as the proportion of Hispanic students who graduate within six years of beginning college. Moreover, given the limitations in studies of Puerto Rican HSIs, they address the organizational characteristics of Puerto Rican as well as U.S. mainland HSIs. This study has research implications for differentiating among HSIs in future analyses and policy implications for understanding institutional factors related to degree completion in HSIs. Appended are: (1) Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) in 2008 according to Geographic Location and State (N = 141); (2) Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) in 2008 Used in the Study According to Geographic Location and State (N = 86); and (3) Description of Variables and Measures. (Contains 2 tables.)

During the late 1990s public pension funds across the United States accrued large actuarial surpluses. The seemingly flush conditions of the pension funds led legislators in most states to substantially improve retirement benefits for public workers, including teachers. In this study we examine the benefit enhancements to the teacher pension system in Missouri. These enhancements resulted in large windfall gains for teachers who were close to retirement when the legislation was enacted. By contrast, novice teachers, and teachers who had not yet entered the labor force, were made "worse off". The reason is that front-end contribution rates have been raised for current teachers to offset past liabilities accrued from the enhancements. Other things equal, the teaching profession in Missouri is now less appealing for young teachers than it was before the pension enhancements were enacted. Pension-Wealth Calculations are appended. (Contains 2 figures, 7 tables and 31 footnotes.)

One major report after another shows that the United States needs a large, innovative, and effective adult education and workforce skills system. It is essential to the national security, economic stability, and democratic way of life. To address this need fully a leadership agency focused on a singular national goal is required, one with a legislative mandate to perform strategic planning and other coordination functions between and among federal agencies and public and private sector groups. Such an agency can accomplish its mission only if it is supported by a strong governance structure. The Council for Advancement of Adult Literacy (CAAL) proposes that the National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) be reauthorized with a new and broader mission, mode of operation, and governance structure, and that these transformational elements be clearly set forth in the reauthorizing legislation. This will effectively create a new agency (with a new name, National Institute for Adult Learning, NIFAL) in place of the current National Institute for Literacy. NIFL, as chartered by the 1991 and 1998 Acts, might have been an important agency in the adult education field, but it was handicapped from the outset. Redeveloped as discussed in this paper, NIFAL will be able to take on the essential and far larger task of building an adult education and workforce skills system to meet the nation's 21st Century needs. About the Authors and NIFAL Working Group are appended. (Contains 7 notes.)

Schools that have not made adequate yearly progress in increasing student academic achievement are required, under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), to offer children in low-income families the opportunity to receive supplemental educational services (SES). In research conducted in Milwaukee Public Schools, the authors explore whether parents and students are aware of their eligibility and options for extra tutoring under NCLB, and who among eligible students registers for SES. Using the best information available to school districts, the authors estimate the effects of SES in increasing students' reading and math achievement. They find no average impacts of SES attendance on student achievement gains and use qualitative research to explore possible explanations for the lack of observed effects. Appendices include: (1) Supplemental Education Services Evaluation Focus Group Protocol; and (2) Milwaukee Public Schools 2006-2007 Supplemental Education Services Student Survey. (Contains 8 tables and 19 notes.) [This paper was presented at the "NCLB: Emerging Findings Research Conference" at the Urban Institute, Washington, D.C. on August 12, 2009.]

The practice of tracking and ability grouping--the division of students into separate tracks, classes, and groups for instruction based on their purported interests and abilities--has long been debated. Evidence from decades of research indicates that tracking magnifies inequality between high and low achievers without raising achievement overall, as high achievers perform better in tracked systems while low achievers perform worse, compared to similar students in mixed-ability contexts. These findings have been sustained in recent work, which has also advanced in three areas. First, international studies have yielded results that are generally consistent with those previously found for the U.S. and U.K. Second, new attempts to reduce or eliminate tracking have suggested ways in which some of the obstacles to reducing the practice may be overcome. Third, new work on classroom assignment and instruction has identified approaches that may capture the benefits of differentiation for meeting students' varied needs without giving rise to the consequences for inequality that commonly accompany tracking and ability grouping. These findings in turn call for new research and experimentation in practice. (Contains 5 footnotes.) [This paper was prepared for the "The Routledge International Handbook of the Sociology of Education," edited by Michael W. Apple, Stephen J. Ball, and Luis Armand Gandin. New York: Routledge, in press.]

For Americans to engage in a global information society, it is critical that they have access to high-speed, high-bandwidth Internet, meaning broadband. Network connectivity opens up a wealth of possibilities to K-12 educators. While it has the potential to result in fundamental changes in teaching methods, it can definitely be used to enhance already effective teaching methods. However, schools must have confidence in their network infrastructure before network connectivity will be integrated into the classroom. Networks must be reliable and quick; and, if they do not function, as expected and technical support is not readily available, then educators will not use them. Schools face challenges to the integration of broadband in teaching and learning in the areas of access, skills, policy, and motivation. Last mile support is essential and all stakeholders must work together to address the main issues facing the improvement of broadband in schools. A solution to these situations is on-site support to streamline and enable effective use of broadband-enabled technology. For most schools, the school librarian, in their roles as school leaders, can expertly direct this "last mile" implementation by providing the technology coordination, support, and leadership necessary to address access issues from desktop to district. (Contains 2 tables and 4 figures.) [This report was produced by the Florida State University PALM (Partnerships Advancing Library Media) Center. Support for this paper was provided by Gale Cengage Learning.]

What to do about persistently low-performing schools is a pressing challenge for policymakers and educators across the nation. Schools that fail to make "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) for five consecutive years under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) must be "restructured". The 3,500 schools in the United States currently in restructuring are pursuing a variety of different strategies, but little research has been done on their implementation or effectiveness. The state of Hawaii has chosen to partner with outside organization in forty-four of its ninety-two restructuring schools--a much greater level than mainland states--and its unusual procurement and accountability frameworks for managing these partnerships offer unique insights to states considering a similar approach. This paper looks at the support mechanisms that Hawaii has put into place to facilitate partnerships with these "diverse providers" and at how restructuring schools may have benefited from those arrangements. (Contains 6 figures.)

This paper analyzes households' response to the introduction of intra-district school choice and examines the impact of exercising this choice on student test scores in Pinellas County Schools, one of the largest school districts in the United States. Households react strongly to the incentives created by such programs, leading to significant changes in the frequency of exercising alternative public schooling options, as well as changes in the composition of the "opt out" students. However, using "proximity to public alternatives" as an instrument for opting out of the "assigned" public school, the author finds no significant benefit of opting out on student achievement. Also, the author finds those who opt out of their default public schools often perform significantly worse on standardized tests than similar students who stay behind. Results suggest that the short-run detrimental effects of opting out are stronger for students who opt out closer to the terminal grade of the school level, yet weaker for "disadvantaged" students, who typically constitute the proposed target of school choice reforms. (Contains 5 figures, 14 tables and 33 footnotes.)

Growth in mixed-sector institutions offering both vocational and higher education qualifications is expected to increase given recent and predicted policy changes. This issues paper focuses on the provision and management of higher education in technical and further education (TAFE) institutes. Issues raised for discussion include the governance of mixed-sector institutions as well as ensuring access and maintaining progression to higher education without sectoral division in the institution. Implications arising from the Bradley review of higher education are canvassed and the authors are inviting discussion on a range of questions related to the nature of policies and practices influencing the provision of higher education in TAFE. A section listing the TAFE institutes that have been registered to offer higher education qualifications and their accredited higher education qualifications, at February 2009 is appended. (Contains 5 tables and 3 footnotes.) [Funding for this document was provided through the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.]

In higher education in the United States, teaching and research in the fields of language and literature are in a desperate condition. Laboring on the age-old axiom "publish-or-perish," thousands of professors, lecturers, and graduate students are busy producing dissertations, books, essays, and reviews. Over the past five decades, their collective productivity has risen from 13,000 to 72,000 publications per year. But the audience for language and literature scholarship has diminished, with unit sales for books now hovering around 300. At the same time, the relations between teachers and students have declined. While 43 percent of two-year public college students and 29 percent of four-year public college students require remedial coursework, costing $2 billion annually, one national survey reports that 37 percent of first-year arts/humanities students "never" discuss course readings with teachers outside of class, and 41 percent only do so "sometimes." These trends are not unrelated. Academic engagement on the part of students is a reflection of how much teachers demand it. But with the research mandate hovering over them, teachers have no incentive to push it. If the system favors publication, not mentoring, hours in the office in conversation with sophomores are counter-productive or even damaging to career and livelihood. Universities need to reconsider the relative value placed on research and teaching in the evaluation of professors. This paper offers several recommendations, including limiting the amount of material that tenure committees will review and creating a "teacher track" in which doctoral students are trained and rewarded for generalist knowledge and multiple course facility rather than a highly-specialized expertise. A bibliography is included. (Contains 52 endnotes.)

This project on national standards and accreditation of career practitioners is set against a background of unprecedented interest by governments nationally and internationally in the provision of career guidance services. Currently more is known about the policy and delivery of career guidance than at any other time in history. There is growing interest in the relationship between career guidance and public policy because the benefits of career guidance to individuals, society and the economy have been recognised. In this regard, strategic alliances are being formed between career guidance practitioners and policy makers in order that policy commitments relating to the provision of quality career services are enhanced. Such an alliance is evidenced in the collaboration between the Department of Education, Science and Training and the Career Industry Council of Australia on this project. This project constitutes a very necessary step in a move towards a quality industry. The purpose of this scoping paper is to: (1) identify current standards guiding career practitioners in Australia; (2) review international work on standards including examples of best practice and advise on how this work might be relevant to the development of national standards and accreditation in the Australian context; (3) be informed by outcomes of national workshops, forums, and conferences 2000-2004; (4) identify the current membership requirements of professional career associations and bodies both nationally and internationally; (5) assess how prior learning or qualifications might be recognised and developed to fit within and meet the requirements of the quality standards; and (6) identify the issues that need to be addressed in the development of national standards. To achieve this purpose, this paper is structured around four main sections--international quality standards, national quality standards, standards guiding Australian professions, and the Australian career industry. Following this a number of themes related to the development and implementation of quality standards will be elaborated. A number of issues relating to the development and implementation of quality standards and accreditation in the Australian career industry will then be raised. Appended are: (1) Glossary of terms; (2) Table of Comparative Competencies; (3) Entry-level Qualifications of Australian Career Practitioner Associations; (4) Standards of Australian Career Practitioner Associations; and (5) Comparison of Quality Standards Across Career Case Studies.

This paper is intended to promote discussion among professionals, policymakers, employers, parents, and individuals with disabilities concerning current and future challenges facing secondary education and transition services nationally. The issues identified and discussed should not, however, be viewed as inclusive of the full range of possible challenges needing to be addressed. This paper (1) presents findings from research identifying key issues influencing the implementation of federal legislation relating to transition services at state and local levels; (2) examines the impact of national organizations, government reports, policy groups, and the courts on secondary education and transition services; and (3) presents the major challenges that the Center must begin to address immediately. These challenges have broad implications for special education and its relationship with general education and community agencies and organizations responsible for supporting youth with disabilities as they make the transition from high school to postsecondary education, employment, and other aspects of adult life. [This paper is based, in part, on a synthesis of research funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services to the National Transition Network at the University of Minnesota and prepared by the National Center on Secondary Education and Transition for Youth with Disabilities.]

Globally, fees and tuition are growing as an important source of income for most universities, with potentially significant influence on the market for students and the behavior of institutions. Thus far, however, there is no single source on the fee rates of comparative research universities, nor information on how these funds are being used by institutions. Furthermore, research on tuition pricing has also focused largely on bachelor's degree programs, and not on the rapid changes in tuition and fees for professional degrees. This paper offers a brief scan of pricing trends among a sample group of 24 public and private research universities in the US, all with a wide array of graduate and professional programs, and a small sample group of EU universities. We trace a pattern of convergence not only between US public and private institutions, but also find indications that these trends occur among EU universities. We theorize that pricing among major research universities is increasingly influenced by levels of market tolerance, and a convergence in pricing driven in part by the perception that price confers quality and a corresponding level of prestige to consumers. This study focuses on pricing, and hence does not delve into the complex moderating effects of bursaries and student costs such as room and board. The recent implosion in credit markets may seriously shake this emerging pricing model, in large part because it is increasingly dependent on students taking out sizable loans. But it is our sense that the long-term trends in pricing, including some level of convergence, will continue as institutions that are globally competitive look over their shoulder at what their perceived peer (or near peer) institutions are charging for specific degrees and programs. This in turn will influence the entire higher education market. Appended are: (1) US (2007) and EU (2006) Pricing Data; and (2) US (2003) Pricing Data. (Contains 13 figures and 19 notes.)

The ways in which children learn a language--be it their mother tongue or their second language--can have a strong influence on their success in school. Researchers in linguistics and early child development have tried to determine the factors that can help and hinder language acquisition in young children, with some conflicting results. In this article, the author reviews the research and existing theories on language development, focusing on how pre-schoolers' social environment affects their ability to learn languages and their subsequent reading and writing skills. Because children from immigrant families and those with a low socio-economic status often have difficulty with language acquisition, this review looks in particular at language development initiatives for disadvantaged groups in daycare settings. Beginning with an overview of theories on language development, the author examines the sometimes-conflicting hypotheses that attempt to explain how children acquire their first language and how some become bilingual. Next, the role of the social environment is reviewed, beginning with the importance of verbal input for first language development, then looking at the complex phenomenon of second language acquisition. The author provides an overview of research on bilingualism and its various forms, focussing on children who learn a second language after they are already established in their mother tongue, as opposed to the less common cases of children who acquire two languages from birth. Looking in particular at research on migrant children, the paper explores the course and duration of second language acquisition, as well as the common linguistic behaviours that may arise. Conditions that influence children's adoption of a second language and culture are then examined, as well as similarities and differences between first and second language acquisition. Factors that influence the development of a second language such as age, motivation, interaction, educational style, socio-economic status, and experiences in daycare are discussed, and the impact of early language development on school success is examined. Finally, the author reviews several programmes aimed at fostering language development and literacy in infancy and early childhood in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany, and concludes with a discussion of the implications of the research, providing several recommendations for practice. A glossary is included. (Contains 24 footnotes.)

Children face many important changes in the first eight years of life, including different learning centres, social groups, roles and expectations. Their ability to adapt to such a dynamic and evolving environment directly affects their sense of identity and status within their community over the short and long term. In particular, the key turning points in children's lives--such as "graduating" from kindergarten to primary school or going through a culturally specific rite of passage--provide challenges and opportunities for learning and growth on multiple levels. This paper provides a review of the major perspectives in research on early childhood transitions and reveals the predominant areas of focus in both academic and professional studies, as well as important neglected viewpoints and study populations. Beginning with a broad and inclusive definition of the topic, the authors provide an overview of early childhood transitions research, highlighting the underlying assumptions that informed the studies. They assess concepts in the developmental theory that preceded transitions research as well as in the logic that determines how transitions are structured. More recent approaches are examined, including systems theories and the role of children as active participants in transitions. Several examples in this review show how multidisciplinary collaboration and culturally sensitive interventions can result in better participation of both parents and children in crucial early childhood transitions. Citing the need to harmonise early childhood education and care programmes with local education practices, the authors stress the value of greater transparency in the creation of policy and programming for children, in order to identify potentially limiting assumptions. Broadening and diversifying perspectives on transitions can lead to more integrated and culturally relevant rights-based early childhood programmes worldwide. A glossary and a bibliography are included. (Contains 7 footnotes.)

Within the context of the school finance literature, the concepts of equity and adequacy raise a number of complex definitional and pragmatic issues. The purpose of this paper is to clarify those issues and to use those concepts to evaluate the recent policy proposal called Weighted Student Funding (WSF). Though WSF contains some equity-enhancing elements, it is likely to fall short of its equity goals because the weights are likely to be inappropriate and the approach fails to take full account of the concentrations of challenging-to-educate students and their effects on the distribution of teachers. In addition, the WSF proposal can be faulted for paying no attention to adequacy, potentially stigmatizing individual students, and placing so much focus on individual schools. A more complete evaluation of WSF would require a broader institutional perspective that extends beyond the equity and adequacy considerations of this article. (Contains 8 footnotes.)

Within the last 50 years, the work-family-household arrangements upon which social policy systems in industrial nations were formulated have disappeared. This briefing paper examines how social policies of the United States, Japan, Germany, Italy, and France have responded. The paper is presented in two major sections. The first section describes family policies in each country concerning parental leave, child benefits/family allowances, child care, marriage/cohabitation, and divorce. The second section discusses the mixed effects of maternity leave on womens employment, the lack of a relationship between fertility and maternity leave and fertility and cash benefits, and factors that complicate the relationship between countries' social spending and child poverty. Job-protected maternity leave is described as the most basic entitlement reflecting public acknowledgment of the economic necessity of working motherhood. Analyses suggest that fertility rates do not seem responsive to cash benefits or other policies, such as extended maternity leave, that function as wages for motherhood. In countries where child care provisions are not widely available, lengthy paid leaves have the effect of bringing women into the home for long periods of time. The most important role of cash benefits is to reduce child poverty, as illustrated by patterns in the U.S., France, and Germany. The paper concludes by asserting that Western European nations family policy can be divided into two types, one in which the social welfare system provides a comprehensive array of universal family benefits and services, and the other in which benefits are nonuniversal and accompanied by higher child poverty rates. The United States fits neither of the European patterns and is characterized by several contradictions contributing to the lack of political support for families. (Contains 98 references.) (KB)

The University of California has long been a major source of socioeconomic mobility in California. Data from the University of California's Undergraduate Experience Survey (UCUES) indicates that more than half the undergraduate students in the UC system have at least one parent that is an immigrant. The ratio is even higher at UC Berkeley. What do such a high percentage of students with recent immigrant backgrounds tell us about the University of California and socioeconomic mobility? How is it influencing the academy and academic and civic experience of undergraduates who are largely first or second-generation immigrants? Utilizing UCUES data on the University of California, and specifically the Berkeley campus as a case example, this brief provides an initial exploration of the dynamics of race and ethnicity, major, and the differing socioeconomic backgrounds of immigrant students, and in comparison to "native" students. Among the major conclusions offered in this study: there are a complex set of differences between various "generations" of immigrant students that fit earlier historical waves of immigrant groups to the United States; that the startling number and range of students from different ethnic, racial, cultural, and economic backgrounds points to the need for an expanded notion of diversity beyond older racial and ethnic paradigms; and while there are growing numbers of immigrant students at Berkeley from different parts of the world, and often from lower income families, there is a high correlation with their socioeconomic capital, described as a variety of factors, but most prominently the education level of their parents and family. Further, students at Berkeley who come from lower income families and have relatively low socioeconomic capital (in particular Chicano/Latinos) do well academically, if only marginally less so than those with higher rates of educational capital. At the same time, they also spend more time in paid employment, spend approximately the same amount of time as Euro-Americans studying and going to class, and have relatively high rates of overall satisfaction with their social and academic experience. (Contains 15 figures and 19 endnotes.)

This paper is the first to systematically document the relationship between individual teacher performance incentives and student achievement using United States data. We combine data from the National Education Longitudinal Survey on schools, students, and their families with our own survey conducted in 2000 regarding the use of teacher incentives. This survey on teacher incentives has unique data on frequency and magnitude of merit raises and bonuses, teacher evaluation, and teacher termination. We find that test scores are higher in schools that offer individual financial incentives for good performance. Moreover, the estimated relationship between the presence of merit pay in teacher compensation and student test scores is strongest in schools that may have the least parental oversight. The association between teacher incentives and student performance could be due to better schools adopting teacher incentives or to teacher incentives eliciting more effort from teachers; it is impossible to rule out the former explanation with our cross-sectional data. (Contains 6 tables and 3 footnotes.) [This report was supported by the Warrington College of Business Administration.]

Current U.S. policy initiatives to improve the U.S. education system, including No Child Left Behind, test-based evaluation of teachers and the promotion of competition, are misguided because they either deny or set to the side a basic body of evidence documenting that students from disadvantaged households on average perform less well in school than those from more advantaged families. Because these policy initiatives do not directly address the educational challenges experienced by disadvantaged students, they have contributed little--and are not likely to contribute much in the future--to raising overall student achievement or to reducing achievement and educational attainment gaps between advantaged and disadvantaged students. Moreover, such policies have the potential to do serious harm. Addressing the educational challenges faced by children from disadvantaged families will require a broader and bolder approach to education policy than the recent efforts to reform schools. (Contains 2 tables, 3 figures and 20 footnotes.)

There is strong interest in broadening engineering education, bringing in more liberal arts content as well as additional subjects such as economics, business and law, with which engineers now have to be familiar. There are also cogent arguments for balancing against what is now the almost exclusively quantitative nature of the curriculum, adding more elements that relate to the actual practice of engineering, and structuring engineering education so as to provide multiple and later entry points, which should enable more informed career choices and make engineering attractive to a more diverse range of the population. Many have also sought a change in the level of the professional engineering degree from the bachelor's to the graduate level, which would logically, and probably also necessarily, accompany these changes. However, progress towards such changes in the United States has been marginal, in large part because incentives on the micro- and meso-scales do not match those on the macro-scale. On the other hand, there is much more substantial change in other countries, driven in part by the Bologna process. For the United States to be the last to change would be counter to the goal of retaining higher-functioning engineering jobs in the U. S. What needs to happen in order for the U. S. to change is evaluated. (Contains 37 endnotes.)

Over recent years governments have been placing more emphasis on innovation as a source of national competitiveness. Governments now assess their investments across many areas in terms of the contribution that such investments make to increasing innovation. This has been especially significant for education and in particular for the development of policies for universities because universities perform research as well as provide learning. The measures governments use to assess the performance of universities frequently include indicators of research-related engagement with business, or of the level of patenting, licensing and start ups. Assessing university performance by focusing on just some of the direct services or outputs that universities provide, or on narrow aspects of their individual services, seriously underestimates the contributions that universities make. Appended are: (1) The health innovation system; (2) Sources of ideas or information for business innovation; (3) Innovation-Active Businesses; and (4) Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education in the USA. (Contains 33 footnotes.)

The most recent figures place the number of juvenile arrests in the United States at 2.11 million. (OJJDP, 2009). In some states, children as young as 10 years old are incarcerated for violent offenses. Crowded juvenile facilities are often unable to meet the needs of these large numbers of youth. The cost to treat offenders within long-term residential facilities is expensive. States spend anywhere from $4 million (in smaller states like Hawaii) to $450 million in larger states such as California on their annual juvenile corrections budget (freelibrary.com, 2010). Locked confinement in a state juvenile correction institution can run in excess of $60,000 annually (Tyler, Ziedenberg, and Lotke, 2006). As an alternative to incarceration for adjudicated youth, several forms of adventure therapy programming have been used. Most of these programs were developed around the premise that the structure of the adventure experience and associated facilitation could produce beneficial changes more effectively than time spent within a locked treatment facility. Just as the type of adventure therapy programs are mixed, so are the outcome research findings associated with juvenile delinquency. Several studies criticize adventure therapy with adjudicated youth for having insignificant or no lasting evidence of effectiveness, including Aos, Miller, and Drake (2006), Brown, Borduin, and Henggeler, (2001), Moote and Wodarski (1997), and Wilson and Lipsey (2000). As recognized in these studies, the key to unlocking the understanding of what is an effective adventure therapy program for juvenile delinquents is the inclusion of certain critical elements. Gass (1993), and more recently in Gillis and Gass (2010), identified seven key factors that seem to predominate the treatment elements of successful programs. These seven elements include treatment: (1) enhanced through action-oriented experiences, (2) centered on the use of unfamiliar client environments, (3) producing a climate of functional change through the positive use of stress, (4) highly informed with client assessment, (5) conducted in a small group, supportive atmosphere, (6) focused on solution oriented principles and techniques, and (7) that changed the role of therapist to remain more "mobile" to actively design and frame interventions.

This paper examines the development in China of junior colleges (JCs) and adult higher education institutions (HEIs) and compares them to their community college counterparts in the United States, focusing on what China can learn from the American experience. It notes that higher education in China has expanded rapidly in recent years, with the number of colleges and universities more than doubling between 1977 and 1995 and enrollment increasing by a factor of five. According to the Ninth Five-Plan for Educational Development and the Long Range Development Program Toward the Year 2010, enrollment is expected to increase from 2.57 million students in 1995 to 4.5 million in 2010. To accommodate the increase, the Chinese government does not plan to expand the number of institutions but rather have the JCs and HEIs expand their current scale of operations by increasing enrollment. It is recommended that the Chinese government establish specific policy guidelines for further developing JCs and HEIs, that educational leaders be granted more autonomy to operate their institutions, that JCs and HEIs consider more open admissions policies, articulate transfer arrangements between JCs and HEIs and four-year institutions, and ensure that JCs and HEIs are properly funded. (Contains 11 references.) (MDM)

Beginning with the assumption that children across the full spectrum of family income, family composition, and prior experience with child care would benefit from being in a well-implemented preschool at 3 and 4 years of age, this working paper focuses on finding a feasible way to finance universal preschool for 4-year-olds. The paper begins with a discussion of the relationship between preschool, preschool quality, and developmental outcomes. The paper then provides background information on the current situation in the United States, followed by a detailed consideration of state-financed pre-kindergarten programs. Early childhood education programs in other industrialized nations are then described, with special attention given to programs in France and Sweden. Next, the paper focuses on possible financing approaches, first highlighting a variety of proposals designed to improve access to and quality of early childhood education in the United States. Finally, the paper presents and discusses a proposal for financing universal preschool for 4-year-olds in the United States which involves having parents pay for the program according to their ability to pay as measured by their average federal tax rate over a 10-year period. It is suggested that for the lowest-income parents, revenue would be raised by a reduction in the subsidy rate of the earned income tax credit; there would be a cap on the amount parents would pay in order to attract children of higher-income parents. (Contains 43 references.) (KB)

With the North American Free Trade Agreement and today's knowledge-based economy, there is a premium placed on post-secondary education and the need to retain graduates in Canada. The share of graduates in the Canadian and the United States labour pools are key to competitiveness. This paper examines Canada's performance relative to the U.S. in terms of post-secondary education (PSE) attainment in the population in the latter half of the 1990s. In particular, it responds to two questions: (1) Does Canada have a higher rate of overall PSE attainment compared to the United States? and (2) Does the United States have a higher rate of university attainment compared to Canada? Findings show that as of 1999, Canada did have a higher rate of PSE attainment compared to the United States. Yet, the gap in attainment between the two countries was not as large as it appeared to be prior to 1997 when a different system of classifying international educational program data was used. Additionally, findings show that by the end of the decade the U.S. had a higher rate of university attainment in the population compared to Canada. However, the difference between the two countries in university attainment is smaller for younger individuals than older. Thus, while a larger percentage of the U.S. population had obtained a university degree, the gap between the two countries may be narrowing. (Contains 1 footnote, 2 tables, and 3 figures.) [This paper is available in French under the title: "Niveau d'etudes postsecondaires au Canada et aux Etats-Unis dans les annees 90."]

Although there are many concepts and ideas proposed to reform mathematics education, especially in rural areas, the experience of actual reform embeds many ironies. In the United States, some researchers and educators try to change the role of mathematics in rural context. From a Thai outlook, however, the difficulty is that this role is not going to change if the U.S. continues (as seems likely) to place great emphasis on student achievement. In the United States, great effort is being devoted to improvement in mathematics achievement, operationalized as "raising test scores." The U.S. government also supports many national evaluation and assessment programs that report students' achievement comparing the United States and international countries such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) or the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). In other words, learning and teaching styles might be changed, but the goals remain the same. This paper focuses on the role of place-based education in mathematics reform. The aim of place-based education is to enhance students' achievements in order to improve a community's quality.

There is a well known large and persistent association between education and health. This relationship has been observed in many countries and time periods, and for a wide variety of health measures. The differences between the more and the less educated are significant: in 1999, the age-adjusted mortality rate of high school dropouts ages 25 to 64 was more than twice as large as the mortality rate of those with some college. Substantial attention has been paid to these "health inequalities." Gradients in health by education are now being systematically monitored in many countries (the United States includes them as part of its Healthy People 2010 goals), and countries such as the United Kingdom have target goals of reducing health disparities--specifically by education or factors correlated with education. In this paper, we review what is known and not known about the relationship between education and health, in particular about the possible causal relationships between education and health and the mechanisms behind them. We then assess the extent to which education policies can or should be thought of as health policies. Data Appendix is included. (Contains 3 tables, 3 figures and 13 endnotes.)

This paper presents an exploratory analysis using NLSY97 data of the relationship between the likelihood of school continuation and the choices of whether to smoke or drink. We demonstrate that in the United States as of the late 1990s, smoking in 11th-grade was a uniquely powerful predictor of whether the student finished high school, and if so whether the student matriculated in a four-year college. For economists the likely explanation for this empirical link would be based on interpersonal differences in time preference, but that account is called in question by our second finding--that drinking does not predict school continuation. We speculate that the demand for tobacco by high school students is influenced by the signal conveyed by smoking (of being offtrack in school), one that is especially powerful for high-aptitude students. To further develop this view, we present estimates of the likelihood of smoking as a function of school commitment and other, more traditional variables. There are no direct implications from this analysis for whether smoking is in some sense a cause of school dropout. We offer some speculations on this matter in the conclusion. (Contains 9 tables, 3 figures, and 5 footnotes.)