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In 2003, the Department for Education in England commissioned research which supported the policy drive to reduce the reliance on statements for special educational needs (SEN). Twenty years on and the government's emphasis has now switched from reducing workload to creating financially sustainable systems. There continues to be wide variations in local authority (LA) statutory assessment practice, with considerable differences in the proportion of pupils with education, health and care plans (EHCPs), even when benchmarked across demographically comparable authorities. LAs with low EHCPs have smaller high needs block (HNB) budgets but typical rates of special needs and disability (SEND) Tribunal appeals. A comparison is also made of the statutory assessment process within the four nations of the UK. The discussion considers the implications of the findings for sustainable high needs systems and for appropriately managing the demand for EHCPs. The current 25-year trendline is projecting towards 10% EHCPs by 2042, a remarkable increase from 2.5% in 2017.

This study explores the role of the welfare state in reducing young people not being in education, employment, or training (NEET)s across 15 European countries. Using data from the Survey of Adult Skills in the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) in combination with the Social Expenditure Database, we conducted cross-national analysis to reveal whether the increase in public social spending moderates the risk of being NEET at a young adult age, especially for socially disadvantaged young people. Our results highlighted that the rise of one percentage point of public social spending per gross domestic product, including social expenditure on education, active labor market, and unemployment, is significantly associated with decreasing the odds of being NEET. Furthermore, these social expenditures appeared to lower the NEET risk given socially disadvantaged backgrounds suggesting that young people with low educational levels, whose parents have low educational attainment levels, non-immigrant families, and females are likely to benefit given the robust social protection system. These findings suggest that public social spending may be an effective investment in promoting the social involvement of young people from socially disadvantaged background.

The COVID-19 pandemic drastically altered K-12 teaching and learning and is likely to affect the students' and teachers' futures. This is true for both general and special education. Lingering, long-term issues will affect teachers and students at all levels of education. However, 'silver linings' of the pandemic might nudge education into better practices. Reliable quantitative research of the pandemic's effects is needed, and this includes research of new supports for learning.

School autonomy can not be separated from support factor. This study aimed to determine source and form of community support and contribution in realizing autonomous in Muhammadiyah schools. This research development is part of dissertation conducted with five stages: define, design, model development, model validation, and model use. The study was conducted at SMP Muhammadiyah, Sleman Regency, with 280 respondents; consist of principals, teachers, staff, students, and ministerial assemblies of "Dikdasmen." Data collection technique used: interviews, questionnaires, and documentation. Data analysis techniques use quantitative inferential analysis, EFA and CFA techniques. The results showed that form and source of support for Muhammadiyah schools is internal as well as external. School support also comes from internal and external support, such as: committee, parents, stakeholders, foundation, education official, collages, and related institutions. Directly and indirectly effect, contribution of school supporting component (Bac) to be school autonomous (Kms) up to 0.30.

This paper aims to explore the mediation effect of psychological capital and perceived organizational support on the relationship between authentic leadership and intention to stay. The structural equation modeling technique was used to test the hypothesized model. A survey was administered to collect data targeting a sample of randomly selected teachers working at high schools in Tehran. The results suggest that authentic leadership significantly influences teachers' intention to stay, psychological capital, perceived organizational support. As predicted, both perceived organizational support and psychological capital had a significant positive direct effect on intention to stay. The effect of authentic leadership on intention to stay was found to be mediated by teachers' psychological capital and perceived organizational support. This study shows how leaders can enhance teachers' intention to stay by applying authentic leadership, engendering psychological capital and creating supportive environment.

Fundraising for higher education institutions is becoming more important as there is increasingly limited government funding for public education. With shrinking funding, university programs and departments may be expected to raise more income on their own. This study hypothesizes that higher levels of stakeholders' (students and alumni) "knowledge," "awareness," "involvement," "satisfaction," and "relationship" with the department and its fundraising efforts are positively associated with "fundraising success" measured in "intention to give" and "likelihood to recommend others to give." By using mixed methods research design and relationship fundraising as a theoretical framework, the study found that satisfaction and relationship are the most significant variables positively affecting giving intention. The qualitative results can explain why these variables matter to stakeholders' intentions to give. Using a case study approach of examining one university's arts administration department fundraising practice and its relationship to stakeholders, this research initiates academic and practical discussion on effective fundraising for higher education units.

In these times of COVID-19, many Moroccan students access websites for their school support needs. The objective of this study is to carry out an evaluation of some Moroccan free school support websites and to verify their effectiveness for learners, from a socio-constructivist perspective. This evaluation is conducted by various teachers using an evaluation grid developed by the authors following a review of literature that identified a number of elements considered as important factors for the proper functioning of an educational website. The approach adopted allowed the grid to be validated (Cronbach's alpha equal to 0.82). The results of the evaluation show several positive aspects but also some weaknesses inherent to the studied websites, especially concerning help with work methodology and pedagogical guidance and also the interactivity. Finally, several recommendations are proposed by the authors.

The aim of the current study was to examine how decisions are made and who is involved in decision-making regarding provision of adjustments for students with special educational needs in Australian mainstream schools. A total of 107 stakeholders were interviewed across 22 schools. Participation in decision-making varied, with students the least likely to be involved. There was variation in the degree and nature of collaboration and the degree to which decisions were subject to review. The focus of decision-making processes also varied, with some schools focusing on funding and resource allocation and others on broader support considerations. Schools used a range of formal and informal levels of decision-making but the degree to which they agreed on factors that underpinned decisions (values, legal considerations, etc.) was variable and sometimes limited. Possible explanations for the observed patterns of decision-making are offered, practical implications considered and directions for future research outlined.

Young children often look to their teachers for affection and acceptance, particularly if they are injured or upset. Yet, many male primary teachers experience substantial fear and uncertainty about making physical contact with their students. This study used 53 open ended survey responses and semi-structured interviews with five experienced male primary teachers in Tasmania, Australia to investigate the coping strategies and supports these men use to deal with this challenge. Findings revealed a variety of coping strategies and supports, and that the fear and uncertainty surrounding physical contact and false accusations needs to be reduced if more male primary teachers are to feel confident interacting with their students in the same ways their female colleagues do.

Teachers work in diverse environments in terms of pupils' abilities, socio-economic backgrounds and demography. The growing demands of political and societal bodies increase the pressure placed on teachers. Using a socio-ecological framework, this study provides insights into teachers' perspectives and their challenges in the field of teaching recently arrived pupils in the Finnish context. Qualitative interviews of ten participants from different parts of Finland were conducted. The data were analysed through thematic analysis. The findings suggest that teachers need more administrative and collegial support, effective educational policies, sufficient resources, and wider community attention. The results of the study can be useful for education stakeholders in mitigating the problems encountered by teachers, and in shedding light on how these levels can be accessed. The study also provides a structure that researchers can use to classify teachers' challenges at the individual, organisational, municipal, and national levels.

One strategy to improve outcomes for students with emotional and behavioral disorders and their families in rural settings is providing parental support. Through interviews with special education administrators and student services personnel representing several rural regions, this exploratory study sought to identify the needs of youth with emotional and behavioral challenges and their families, potential barriers to accessing school and community services, and the feasibility of implementing a phone-based parent-to-parent support program in rural communities. Findings indicated increased efforts in providing mental health services in the school, several service access barriers, and strategies for improving parent support in rural settings.

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explain how the Common Core State Standards may have influenced teachers' practices and philosophies regarding literacy instruction. Conducted in five kindergarten through second-grade classrooms within one elementary school, this research study collected semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and teacher-reported lesson plans over fourteen weeks. We observed that one of the largest instructional shifts due to the implementation of new standards was in the area of informational text use. This change came about not due to the volume of empirical research stating the benefits of such texts, but rather because of an educational policy change. These findings hold implications for K-12 schools and for teacher education programs which are, in many instances, caught between the research, policies, and practice.

The equity lens evaluates institutional barriers that prevent students of color from gaining access to resources for college success (Bensimon, 2005). The first-generation college students at the University of Southern California are 16% of the total student body and students of color comprise two-thirds of this population. Since 2008, how to support first-generation college students of color in their academic achievement and college success once in college has expanded the discussion beyond access. By evaluating institutional structures through the equity lens, the response has been to create intentional academic and social programs for first-generation college students of color that bridge the academic and student services divide. Through descriptions of actual programs and stories from students affected by these programs, this essay will discuss innovative approaches to serving first-generation students of color at predominantly white universities.

Teacher advocacy has been examined as a practice of activism external to the school and as a practice of educational leadership. However, researchers have not merged these ideas by framing advocacy as a practice of leadership that takes place within the classroom and across the school. This article illustrates how, through advocacy on behalf of students who are marginalized, teachers demonstrate a model for critical teacher leadership. Using a critical ethnographic approach, observation and interview data were collected across three schools to answer these research questions: (a) In what ways do teachers advocate on behalf of students who have been marginalized; (b) How do these teachers garner support for the students from administrators and/or colleagues; and (c) How do teachers advocate for these students beyond their school? Findings are used to support teacher advocacy as a practice of critical pedagogy, collaborative leadership, and ethical leadership, and to propose a definition of critical teacher leadership.

The aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between perceived social support levels and the organizational commitment of the teachers working in state primary and secondary schools in Atakum, Canik, Ilkadim and Tekkeköy districts of Samsun in Turkey in the academic year of 2014-2015. The research used relational search model and employed to collect data by using "Personal Information Form", "Organizational Commitment Scale" developed by Balay [1] and "Perceived Social Support Scale" by Çivilidag [2]. Some important results of this research are: (1) there is a meaningful, positive and low-level relation between perceived social support level and organizational commitment; (2) perceived social support explains 3% of the change in organizational commitment; (3) teachers have received most of the help from their husband or wife and obtained least help from their students among the sub-dimensions of perceived social support; (4) teachers have the strongest commitment to the internalization dimension among the organizational commitment sub-dimensions.

Purpose: Providing educational services for Syrian refugee children is a new fact of life in Turkey, and the teachers who work at public schools and temporary education centers encounter some difficulties. The main purpose of this paper is to describe the problems faced in the process of educating Syrian refugee children as well as the solutions to such difficulties recommended by the teachers. Research Methods: The study was carried out using qualitative research methods and the phenomenological model to investigate the problems faced in the process of educating the Syrian students. The purposive sampling method was used in order to identify the participants. Thereafter; the plan was to interview the participants consisting of nine teachers of Syrian students. Interview forms were designed and developed by the researchers and used in the study. The content analysis technique was used during the analysis of the data. The NVivo 10 package program was used. Findings: In the study, the problems faced by the teachers were identified as a language barrier, cultural problems and discipline problems. While the teachers at the public schools appear to think that the students are on good terms with their friends, teachers and the school principal, the teachers at the temporary education centers seem to have a completely opposite view on the matter. Teachers state that they do not receive adequate support in the process of educating Syrian students and add that the students are provided with limited books and additional class support. Last, to solve these problems, the teachers recommend that the language barrier be overcome by teaching the Syrians the Turkish language, that materials and a curriculum for Turkish language education be developed, that the Syrian students be taught separately from the Turkish students, that the teachers be provided with in-service seminars, and that class populations be reduced. Implications for Research and Practice: Teaching so many refugees is a new phenomenon for Turkey. In order to properly overcome this issue, the MoNE must be in close contact with the teachers and educational institutions working in this process. Also, for the healthy functioning of this process, the need for support from both the general public and national and international organizations should not be ignored. [This article was presented at ECER 2016, "Leading Education: The Distinct Contributions of Educational Research and Researchers," in Dublin, Ireland.]

It is widely estimated that approximately 25% of school age youth face mental and behavioral health challenges. The vast majority of these youth are insufficiently treated, leaving them vulnerable to negative school outcomes such as attendance, behavioral, and academic problems. One common barrier to treatment is a lack of access to appropriate and consistent care including assessment and intervention. Often when students are identified in schools as potentially struggling with mental health issues, the child is referred out to the community for treatment. While well-intended, this approach is largely unsuccessful if families face challenges such as a language barrier, a lack of transportation or health insurance, or lack of flexibility with their jobs leaving them unable to make appointments. A unique school-community partnership in North Carolina attempted to overcome these obstacles by bringing mental health services to youth at the school campuses. The School-Based Support program largely mitigated problems with access to care and made a positive impact on school outcomes for youth. This report from the field describes the consequences of untreated mental health problems among children, barriers to receiving mental health treatment, and ways student mental health needs are currently addressed in schools. We then detail how the School-Based Support program was formed through a school-community partnership, the program components, evaluation results, and a case example.

In "The Testing Charade: Pretending to Make Schools Better", the author's new book from which this article is drawn, the failures of test-based accountability are documented and some of the most egregious misuses and outright abuses of testing are described, along with some of the most serious negative effects. Neither good intentions intentions nor the value of well-used tests justifies continuing to ignore the absurdities and failures of the current system and the real harms it is causing. Here the author presents some options for doing better.

Educators and schools have a responsibility to ensure that young people become engaged and knowledgeable citizens. A recent report on high school civics education nationwide, "The State of Civics Education," finds a wide variation in state requirements and levels of youth engagement. Only nine states and the District of Columbia require one year of U.S. government or civics at the high school level, and state civics curricula are light on building skills and agency for civic engagement. Few states provide service learning opportunities or engage students in relevant project-based learning. Nationwide, students score very low on the Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. government exam. States with the highest rate of youth civic engagement tend to prioritize civics courses and AP U.S. government in their curricula. While most states require only a half year of civics education, two (Colorado and Idaho) have designed detailed curricula that are taught throughout yearlong courses, and one (Idaho) focuses on introducing civics education into its early grades. Non-profits that support civics education include General Citizen, a nonprofit that works in many states, teaches what it calls "action civics" to more than 30,000 middle school and high school students, providing schools with detailed curricula and giving students opportunities for real-world engagement as they work to solve community problems. Teaching Tolerance, an initiative through the Southern Poverty Law Center, provides free materials to emphasize social justice in existing school curricula.

Hoping to spur dramatic school turnaround, the federal government channeled resources to the country's lowest-performing schools through School Improvement Grants (SIG). However, prior research on SIG effectiveness is limited and focuses primarily on student achievement. This study uses a difference-in-differences strategy to estimate program impacts on multiple dimensions across the 3-year duration of the SIG award in one urban school district. Following 2 years of modest improvement, we find pronounced, positive effects of SIG interventions on student achievement in Year 3, consistent with prior literature indicating that improvements from comprehensive school turnarounds emerge gradually. We also identify improvements indicating the process through which change occurred, including reduced unexcused absences, increased family preference for SIG schools, improved retention of effective teachers, and greater development of teacher professional capacity.

So far, few articles about innovations in Dutch or American honors programs appear to link their findings to an existing body of research about innovations in higher education in general. Although scholars are starting to make this connection more and more (see Kallenberg; NRO, "Excellentie" and "EXChange"; NWO, "Excellentie" and "EXChange"; Jong), both parties could profit from greater contact. Scholars who study innovations in honors programs could benefit from a comparison of their findings to those in more mature fields, i.e., research about innovation in higher education. At the same time, a full model of innovation in higher education should take into account the findings about honors programs, which are natural innovation labs and thus relevant to research about higher education. Here we focus on factors that promote or block the diffusion of innovations from Dutch honors programs to other components of the Dutch higher education system. We examine three factors that emerged most frequently in a recent meeting of experts in Dutch honors programs on 'honours education as a laboratory for educational innovation.' This meeting was held in Leiden on 2 November 2016; jointly organized by Universiteit Leiden and Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, it attracted thirty-six stakeholders who worked in, or on, honors programs in the Netherlands as teachers, organizers, policy makers, or researchers. In discussions about factors that might promote or block the diffusion of innovations from Dutch honors programs to other places in the Dutch higher education system, these three factors were named most frequently: (1) the need for a safe environment in the classroom, (2) the need to establish communities of teachers, and (3) the need for institutional support. Various experts in the meeting believed that in order to be able to experiment, honors teachers need classrooms that provide safe environments in order to encourage experimentation and allow innovations to emerge. To stimulate the diffusion of resulting innovations, stakeholders believed that teacher communities and institutional support are crucial. While the meeting was held in the Netherlands and focused on Dutch honors programs, and while the setup and character of honors differ between the U.S. and Europe (see Wolfensberger, Talent Development and Wolfensberger, Eijl, et al., "Laboratories"), the issues raised at the meeting are relevant to honors education anywhere. Our discussions of the research literature about each of the three factors look beyond the current literature about honors programs as innovation labs and offer clear pathways to ideas from other fields. We also hope to stimulate reflection on the topic among researchers, teachers, organizers, and managers working in the field of honors education by offering questions they can pursue.

Although global initiatives have brought attention to the lack of quality in education systems worldwide; the question remains, how do we implement quality education? Teachers, a vital component of the education process, are not usually included in these global conversations; this results in government initiatives missing key obstacles faced by teachers daily. In this article, we used a rights-based approach to examine the Quality Educators Initiative, specifically its curricular component, as it tries to assist teachers in northern Uganda, an area whose schools and communities are vastly under-resourced and dealing with post-conflict effects. Using a mixed-methods approach, we highlight teachers' experiences with the National Thematic Curriculum and reveal through our findings that regional contextual factors, and teachers' voices and changing roles due to these factors, must be taken into consideration when rolling out new education policies.

This study examines how perceptions of the legitimacy of university sustainability efforts--support by the administration (authorization) or from students' peers (endorsement)--as well as the physical context in which students live, matter in shaping students' environmentally responsible behaviors (ERBs). Using survey data collected from fourth-year students at a university in the Southeastern US, we employ Seeming Unrelated Regression to analyze the impact of perceived legitimacy and context on recycling and conservation behaviors, controlling for demographic characteristics, pro-environmental attitudes, and environmental identity. Our findings indicate that students' perceptions of what university administrators support affect the likelihood of students to enact recycling and conservation behaviors, and peer support influences conservation behaviors. This research contributes to the literature on legitimacy by examining how legitimacy processes work in natural, rather than experimental, settings.

Assessment in health sciences education has become an extremely critical issue in recent years, given the rapidly changing disease patterns and behavioral changes in communities among diverse cultural and economic contexts of patients. Globally, there is increasing demand for highly qualified contemporary healthcare professionals. Subsequently, learner assessment regimes need to have the capacity to accurately evaluate the competences (i.e. attitudes, skills and know-how) acquired during the training of healthcare professionals. This paper provides an analysis of assessment of and for learning in health sciences education with a focus on clinical laboratory training at MLT in Uganda. This study utilized both quantitative and qualitative research designs. The program evaluation design principles were also utilized to measure the levels of compliance towards attainment of curriculum outcomes. The instruments used during data collection included checklists, questionnaires, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions (FDGs). The findings of this study showed that learners were achieving the intended curriculum objectives progressively. The assessment tools used were prepared through a rigorous process to ensure that the basic principles of assessment are identified and integrated during curriculum design and implementation. Results of the study also showed that adequate institutional administrative support available enhanced the teaching and learning processes and ensured that appropriate curriculum assessment schedules and strategies were strictly followed as stated in the elements of the curriculum structures. This contributed meaningfully in preparing competent contemporary healthcare professionals (clinical laboratory technicians). It was recommended that all healthcare professional training institutions should take the use of authentic assessment of and for learning very seriously.

Community colleges have embraced distance education as a means to provide increased flexibility and access to their large numbers of non-traditional students. Retention rates and student achievement measures alone may not reflect all of the benefits and opportunities that online learning, blended or hybrid learning, and technology enhanced learning may afford these students. Online learning resources should be viewed as a tremendous value added benefit for community college students, not only for the content conveyed, but also for fostering the digital readiness, cultivating the professional personas, and encouraging the self-directed learning needed to succeed in the digitally-driven workplace.

This study aimed to identify secondary school teachers' views on levels of organizational support, organizational identification and climate of initiative and to determine whether there were any significant differences between these views based on teachers' demographic characteristics and whether there were significant differences between teachers' climate of initiative levels and levels of their organizational support and organizational identification. Universe of the study conducted with relational screening model was composed of teachers (n = 240) employed in Bolu province Anatolian High Schools during 2014-2015 academic year. Organizational Support, Organizational Identification and Climate of Initiative Scales were used in the study as data collection tools. According to research results, teachers were "undecided" in their organizational identification and climate of initiative levels, "agreed" with the organizational support level total scale and its instructional support and justice support sub dimensions and "partially" agreed with the administrative support dimension. While there were no significant differences in teacher views on climate of initiative, organizational support and all its sub dimensions based on gender, marital status, level of education, professional seniority, age and union membership variables, significant differences were identified on organizational identification levels based on age and level of education variables. A low level, positive meaningful relationship was identified for teachers' climate of initiative, organizational identification and total support, support administrative and support justice levels which are organizational support sub dimensions and no significant relationships were detected with instructional support levels.