Enhancing Educational Excellence, Equity and Efficiency

Promoting high standards in education while striving for equal opportunities under the budget constraints - these are the new global objectives of education systems.
This book brings together research-based evidence on the effectiveness of major Australian, Dutch, and UK improvement efforts in education at both primary and secondary level, whilst making comparisons with similar US initiatives. The book addresses several major questions in this new environment. Those questions include: how to combat educational disadvantages, how to integrate pupils with special educational needs in regular education, how to implement educational standards initiatives, how to restructure secondary education, how to implement decentralized policy-making, and how to implement a class size reduction initiative? Finally, the authors suggest directions for future research in order to increase our understanding of what works in education and why.

Preface. 1. Enduring Problems and Changing Conceptions; R.J. Bosker, et al. 2. Changing Relationships between Centre and Locality in Education; H.P.J.M. Dekkers, et al. 3. The Enhancement of Educational Opportunities of Disadvantaged Children; G.W.J.M. Driessen, L.W.J. Mulder. 4. Integration Policy and Practice; F. Fletcher-Campbell, et al. 5. The forthcoming Class Size Reduction Initiative; R.J. Bosker, et al. 6. Quality and Opportunities in Secondary Education: Implementation and Effects of the Common Core Curriculum; G.P.C. van der Werf, et al. 7. Evaluating the Impact of a Raising School Standards Initiative; B. Taggart, P. Sammons. 8. Systemic, Whole-school Reform of the Middle Years of Schooling; P.W. Hill, V.J. Russell. 9. Review and Prospects of Educational Effectiveness Research in the Netherlands; J. Scheerens, B.P.M. Creemers. 10. The Future Agenda of Studies into the Effectiveness of Schools; D. Reynolds, C. Teddlie. Index.