Preparing School Leaders for Special Education: Old Criticisms and New Directions

In the context of accountability and high-stakes testing, professors of educational administration in Texas and across the nation are under tremendous pressure to develop innovative principal preparation programs that produce effective school leaders, especially as research methodologies emerge to disaggregate the effects of such programs. One area few programs adequately address, including more innovative programs, is special education - despite the fact that principals struggle with accountability for all students, but particularly those principals in schools and districts with limited resources and limited professional development opportunitie~ (Bays & Crocket, 2007; Wakeman, Browder, Flowers, & Ahlgrim-Delzell, 2006). Principals have long reported that their preparation programs did not prepare them with the legal and instructional knowledge in the area of special education (DiPaola & Walther-Thomas, 2003; Hirth & Valesky, 1990)

As tendências históricas nos processos de descentralização educacional nos Estados Unidos e em países em desenvolvimento no contexto pós-Segunda Guerra Mundial

In the present work, we fill a gap in the writing on the decentralization of educational governance by periodizing and comparing trends that have fallen under this label in both the United States and developing countries in the post-WWII period (1945-present). The findings are informed by a review of 127 decentralization-related studies from seven leading, peer-reviewed journals in comparative and international education, in addition to the Journal of Education Policy, Journal of Educational Administration, and Harvard Education Review. We combine this review with works that address larger political and economic shifts and, in so doing, are able to delineate two pushes for decentralization in the United States. In developing countries, the term decentralization has emerged during three distinct periods. Beyond characterizing the nature of decentralization in general terms over time, we also compare key features of these trends and the forces that brought them about. One key finding is that the application of community-level decentralization in developing countries has not been as widespread as global rhetoric during the 1990s and 2000s would imply. A second key finding is that there has been a relatively recent shift away from decentralization towards other forms of accountability-based reforms in both the United States and developing countries.Este trabajo, completa una brecha en la literatura sobre la descentralización de la gestión educativa con la periodización y la comparación de los procesos descentralizadores tanto en Estados Unidos como en los países en desarrollo en el período posterior a la Segunda Guerra Mundial (1945-presente). Los resultados provienen de una revisión de 127 estudios sobre descentralización publicados en siete de las principales revistas en educación comparada e internacional, además de Journal of Education Policy, Journal of Educational Administration, and Harvard Education Review. Combinamos esta revisión con análisis de trabajos que abordan grandes cambios políticos y económicos para delinear dos dinámicas que impulsaron la descentralización. Un hallazgo clave es que la aplicación de la descentralización al nivel de las comunidades locales en los países en desarrollo no ha sido tan generalizada como la retórica mundial durante los años 1990 y 2000 implicaría. Un segundo hallazgo clave es que ha habido un cambio relativamente reciente que abandona los modelos de descentralización hacia otras formas de reformas basadas en la rendición de cuentas, tanto en los Estados Unidos y los países en desarrollo.Este trabalho completa uma lacuna na literatura sobre a descentralização da gestão da educação, com a periodização e comparação das tendencias  descentralizadores, tanto nos Estados Unidos como em os países em desenvolvimento no período após a II Guerra Mundial (1945-presente). Os resultados vêm de uma revisão de 127 estudos sobre  descentralização publicados em sete dos principais periódicos em educação comparada e internacional, e Journal of Education Policy, Journal of Educational Administration, e Harvard Education Review. Nós combinamos esta revisão com análise de obras que abordam as principais mudanças políticas e econômicas para delinear duas dinâmicas que levaram à descentralização. A principal conclusão é que a implementação da descentralização ao nível das comunidades locais nos países em desenvolvimento não tem sido tão difundido como retórica global durante o 1990 e 2000 média. A segunda constatação importante é que tem havido uma relativamente recentes modelos de mudança deixando a outras formas de reformas de descentralização com base na prestação de contas, tanto em os EUA e os países em desenvolvimento

Essential Reading on Education Reform Dynamics. A Book Review of \u3cem\u3ePhilanthropy, Hidden Strategy, and Collective Resistance\u3cem\u3e

This review looks at what sets Philanthrophy, Hidden Strategy, and Collective Resistance (2019) apart from the rest of the available literature surrounding the politics involved in behind the scenes policy-making decisions. The book is broken down into easily digestible chapters that focus on a variety of topics from a quick primer on neoliberalism to the hidden hand of philanthropy and the way it shapes education. Of special note is the focus on praxis, with concrete examples on how the reader can fight to bring democracy to education whether they are a student, professor, teacher, or parent

Influence over time: Community-driven development and the changing nature of the World Bank’s impact in Indonesia

Much literature has focused on the influence of the World Bank (or simply ‘the Bank’) with regard to policy reform in low-income countries. While this literature has been produced over the course of many decades, the underlying studies have not tended themselves to take a multi-decade approach to examining the way that World Bank influence changes in a given country. Put differently, studies tend to examine specific periods of time rather than looking at influence over time. In response, the present paper seeks to contribute to scholarship on World Bank influence by doing just that—that is, by looking at a twenty-year period of World Bank engagement in Indonesia. In reference to this time horizon, the purpose is (a) to map the nature and influence of the World Bank as it engaged with the government of Indonesia (GOI) around education and development policy, (b) to reflect on how and why that engagement changed over time, and (c) to consider the implications of the study in relation to the broader literature on the evolution and current status of World Bank influence. As will become shown, the focus of the World Bank’s engagement—and thus the focus of this article—has been in the area of governance, where it has pushed and experimented with decentralization, community-driven development, and school based management. While the article focuses on education policy, reforms in this area have been impacted by governance reforms more broadly, in ways discussed

Os colégios em concessão em Bogotá: os limites da eficiência econômica dos programas chárter

In the context of global educational agenda, public-private alliances (particularly charter schools) are reforms with a growing academic prestige and political popularity. Supposedly, and according to their promoters, these reforms are considered to be a cost-efficient solution. There are two aspects of charter schools that have received less academic interest: the management of the teaching staff and the acquisition of resources. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap through the case study of the “Concession School” (cec) charter program, active in Bogotá since 1999. cecs are particularly relevant, since Colombia is one of the Latin American countries that have experimented most energetically with app; moreover, cecs have received a great academic, political, and media attention, particularly from international organizations; as such, cecs have become a paradigmatic model of the charter program. The results of this paper allow us to identify the economic strategies of cecs in Bogotá, which include the systematic worsening of the teachers’ working conditions, and new strategies for acquisition of additional resources, both findings problematize the supposed comparative advantage and cost-efficiency, both of the cecs in Bogota as well as the charter program in general.En el marco de agenda educativa global, las alianzas-público-privadas (como especialmente las escuelas chárter) son reformas con creciente prestigio académico y popularidad política. Supuestamente, y según sus promotores, estas reformas son consideradas una solución costo-eficiente. Existen dos aspectos de las escuelas chárter que han recibido poco interés académico: la gestión del profesorado y la adquisición de recursos. El objetivo de este artículo es subsanar este vacío a través del estudio de caso del programa chárter Colegios en Concesión (cec, activo en Bogotá desde 1999). Los cec son particularmente relevantes, ya que Colombia es uno de los países latinoamericanos que ha experimentado más enérgicamente con las app; además, los cec han recibido una gran atención académica, política, y mediática, muy especialmente de los organismos internacionales; así pues, los cec se han convertido en un modelo paradigmático del programa chárter. Los resultados de este artículo permiten identificar las estrategias económicas de los cec bogotanos, que incluyen el empeoramiento sistemático de las condiciones laborales del profesorado, y nuevas estrategias de adquisición de recursos adicionales; ambos hallazgos problematizan la supuesta ventaja comparativa y costo-eficiencia, tanto de los cec bogotanos como también del programa chárter en general.No marco da agenda educacional global, as alianças público-particulares (como, especialmente, as escolas charter) são reformas com crescente prestígio acadêmico e popularidade política. Aparentemente, segundo seus promotores, estas reformas oferecem uma solução custo-eficiente. Existem dois aspectos das escolas charter que tem recebido pouco interesse acadêmico: a gestão do professorado e a aquisição de recursos. O objetivo deste artigo é remediar esse vazio através do estudo de caso do programa charter Colégios em Concessão (cec, ativo em Bogotá desde 1999). Os cec são relevantes, pois a Colômbia é um dos países latino-americanos que tem experimentado mais energicamente com as app; além disso, os cec receberam muita atenção acadêmica, política e midiática, especialmente dos organismos internacionais. Assim, os cec viraram um modelo paradigmático do programa charter. As descobertas deste artigo permitem identificar as estratégias econômicas dos cec bogotanos, que incluem a deterioração sistemática das condições de trabalho do professorado e novas estratégias de aquisição de recursos adicionais. As duas descobertas problematizam a suposta vantagem comparativa e custo-eficiência, tanto dos cec bogotanos quanto do programa charter em geral

Cofactorization on Graphics Processing Units

We show how the cofactorization step, a compute-intensive part of the relation collection phase of the number field sieve (NFS), can be farmed out to a graphics processing unit. Our implementation on a GTX 580 GPU, which is integrated with a state-of-the-art NFS implementation, can serve as a cryptanalytic co-processor for several Intel i7-3770K quad-core CPUs simultaneously. This allows those processors to focus on the memory-intensive sieving and results in more useful NFS-relations found in less time

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead