Education policy

Education policy refers to the collection of laws or rules that govern the operation of education systems.

Education occurs in many forms for many purposes through many institutions. Examples include early childhood education, kindergarten through to 12th grade, two and four year colleges or universities, graduate and professional education, adult education and job training. Therefore, education policy can directly affect the education people engage in at all ages.

Examples of areas subject to debate in education policy, specifically from the field of schools, include school size, class size, school choice, school privatization, tracking, teacher education and certification, teacher pay, teaching methods, curricular content, graduation requirements, school infrastructure investment, and the values that schools are expected to uphold and model.

Education policy analysis is the scholarly study of education policy. It seeks to answer questions about the purpose of education, the objectives (societal and personal) that it is designed to attain, the methods for attaining them and the tools for measuring their success or failure. Research intended to inform education policy is carried out in a wide variety of institutions and in many academic disciplines. Important researchers are affiliated with departments of psychology, economics, sociology, and human development, in addition to schools and departments of education or public policy. Examples of education policy analysis may be found in such academic journals as "Education Policy Analysis Archives".

List of Researchers
*George Akerlof
*Joshua Angrist
*Gary Becker
*Charles Bidwell
*James S. Coleman
*Roland Fryer
*Adam Gamoran
*Gene V Glass
*Eric Hanushek
*Linda Darling-Hammond
*James Heckman
*Thomas Kane
*Alan Krueger
*Henry Levin
*Richard Murnane
*Gary Orfield
*Andrew C. Porter
*Stephen Raudenbush
*Diane Ravitch
*Fernando Reimers

ee also

*Public Policy
*Educational Evaluation
*NCLBAccording to a "Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read" http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/nrp/findings.cfm?renderforprint=1,the NRP has begun to recognize the value of computer technology for reading education. However, the NRP's consideration of computer technology for reading education must encompass computer technology's ability to deliver instruction. An example of this would be how computers deliver instruction in vocabulary or in phonemic awareness. The studies that analyze computer technology for reading education is limited and small in number. With only 21 studies that met the NRP research methodology criteria, it is difficult to draw conclusions from these studies. However, it is possible to make some general statements. These general statements include: "First, all the studies reportpositive results, suggesting that it is possible to use computer technology for reading instruction. The seven studies that reviewed the addition of speech to computer-presented text indicate that this may be a promising use of technology in reading instruction.Two other trends show promise. The use of hypertext (highlighted text that links to underlying definitions or supporting or related text,almost like an electronic footnote), while technically not reading instruction, may have an instructional advantage. Second, the use ofcomputers as word processors may be very useful, given that reading instruction is most effective when combined with writing instruction.Striking in its absence is research on the incorporation of Internet applications to reading instruction.Research also is needed on the value of speech recognition as a technology and the use of multimedia presentations in readinginstruction.In sum, the Panel is encouraged by the reported successes in the use of computer technology for reading instruction, but relatively fewspecific instructional applications can be gleaned from the research. Many questions still need to be addressed" http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/nrp/findings.cfm?renderforprint=1 .

External links

* [http://www.aera.net/ American Education Research Association]
* [http://www.bera.ac.uk/ British Educational Research Association]
* [http://www.brook.edu/gs/brown/brown_hp.htm Brookings Institution Brown Center on Education]
* [http://www.csse.ca/ Canadian Society for the Study of Education]
* [http://www.ers.org/ Educational Research Service]
* [http://www.eidos.org.au/ Eidos Institute, AUS]
* [http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ies/index.html Institute of Education Sciences (U.S. Department of Education)]
* [http://www.nfer.ac.uk/ National Foundation for Educational Research (UK)]
* [http://www.newteachercenter.org New Teacher Center at the University of California, Santa Cruz]
* [http://www.edexcellence.net/foundation/global/index.cfm Thomas B. Fordham Foundation Institute]
* [http://www.wiscape.wisc.edu/ Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education]
* [http://www.wcer.wisc.edu Wisconsin Center for Education Research]