The Risky Business of Education Policy focuses commentary and analysis on some of the most pressing policy challenges facing public school educators and those invested in a healthy, vibrant public-school system. The book shares insights and makes recommendations from leading scholar-practitioners, namely from educational leadership and science education, on ways to ponder, navigate, and challenge serious policy issues. The chapters present important policy topics and critical analysis of the topics from the authorial perspective of experienced educators leading the preparation of future school leaders and teachers. Through fast paced, user-friendly chapters, contributors grapple with an education reform policy issue of the day, reflecting what is contentious territory while wading through it. These educational researchers also make evidence-informed practical recommendations for educators and policymakers on how to better approach the policy challenges presented, so public education can be improved for all children. Each chapter contains stimulating ideas, useful information, and practical tips for school practitioners, higher education faculty, and constituent groups.

By 1990, there were over 4000 Political Action Committees (PACs) active and visible in the USA. This study covers various perspectives of PACs - size, contribution strategies, access to Washington information networks and issues - by means of diverse case studies.

First published in 1991. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Risk Society and School Educational Policy explores the impact of risk society on policy in the US, UK and Australia through both practical and theoretical perspectives. The book develops an in-depth understanding of risk society itself, and guides the reader in applying this knowledge to the problem of how this impacts policy and practice in school education. Drawing on work by Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens, Rodwell explores the development of risk society as a field of interest, discussing its history, contemporary significance and links with neoliberalism, school education, and both mainstream and social media. He also examines its impact on government policies and the practical implications of how this impacts the educational experiences of children around the globe today. A book for policy professionals, researchers, academics and postgraduate students interested in Education Studies, Theory and Policy, and International and Comparative Education, Risk Society and School Educational Policy is the first international academic monograph published in the field.

Thousands of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds are forsaking education in secondary mainstream schools across Australia. This book places a sociological and lived experience phenomenological lens on public policy that is working against school inclusion, learning engagement and post-school opportunity. The school case studies provided here highlight the damage done and the opportunity for refreshed policy approaches to address this malaise. Across the educational landscape, there are a number of fine examples of schools that are choosing to do schooling 'against the grain' of unhelpful regulatory policy that works to exclude many from their educational entitlement. These schools and their practices are examined in this book and are presented as examples for policy learning. If education systems learn to embrace an ongoing culture of research and inquiry, where the evidence-based and contextual learning experiences of students, teachers and Principals are equally valued and heard in the policy realm, the phenomenon of early school leaving can begin to turn around. This work calls upon Principals in the first instance to become more radical and pragmatic in their leadership of schools, collectively working with courage to ensure that the experience of schooling is personalised to the learning needs and career aspirations of all young people.

What are the financial and psychological costs of risky behavior in business to the individuals concerned and their organizations? Risky Business provides a perspective on addictive behaviors such as gambling, drug taking and even addiction to work; criminal behaviors such as theft and corruption; and behaviors such as aggression and violence. The authors then look at their implications to employee and organizational health within the context of the workplace environment; an environment that is often synonymous with psychological demands, stress, long hours, overwork and shortages of staff or other essential resources. An essential guide for occupational psychologists, human resource specialists, risk managers and for researchers in this field.

How can we understand the educational disengagement of urban, working-class young people? What role do schools and education policies play in these young people’s difficult relationships with education? How might schools help to support and engage urban youth? This book critically engages with contemporary notions of 'at risk' youth. It explores the complexity of urban young people's relationships with education and schooling and discusses strategies for addressing these issues. Drawing on a two year study of urban 14-16 year olds, educational professionals and parents, the book focuses in depth on the views and experiences of ethnically diverse young Londoners who had been identified by their schools as 'at risk of dropping out of education' and as 'unlikely to progress into post-16 education'. It provides an informative and accessible overview of the key issues, debates and theoretical frameworks. It is important reading for school leaders, teachers and learning support assistants as well as trainee teachers and educational researchers.

Vouch for This! Defunding Private Interests, Defending Public Schools (A Call to Action) is an effort by doctoral students in Educational Leadership and their professor to understand and challenge the voucher and charter school movements in Ohio and beyond. Using a curriculum studies approach focusing on autobiographical analysis and a policy advocacy framework, students in a course on the topic shared a common reading list, storied their connections to the current movements in the field, and developed treatments of key aspects of current policy and practice in the areas of voucher and other privatizing efforts in education today as they are embodied in charter schools, homeschooling, and private school settings. Using the tools of currere and policy advocacy as a scholarly community, the authors tackle the multi-faceted challenges and dangers posed by the neoliberal, privatizing movements taking rapid shape across our public school system, as private schools, charters, and homeschooling continue to receive significantly more and more public taxpayer funds to operate and build. The authors share what they learned about the continued demise of public education at the hands of politicians and privateers in Ohio and beyond, and what they think citizens can do to resist. Together in teams, the authors engage topics related to education and public schooling as key aspects of democratic life; the actions taken by capital interests that seize on tragedy and perceived community weakness to privatize education and villainize public schools; the greed that creates fervor and interest in “choice”; and suggest ways to take action to stem the tide. The book’s foreword is written by well-known education activist William L. Phillis, Executive Director of The Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding (Ohio E&A), whose coalition of public school districts in Ohio is challenging the constitutionality of the voucher movements with their public case, “Vouchers Hurt Ohio.”

This book brings together key articles that trace the development of British education policy since 1975 and provides a valuable route map to developments within education policy during this period. It includes twenty-six seminal articles from the Oxford Review of Education written by many of the leading authors in the field and covering issues and topics with a wide significance beyond Britain. In one, easy-to-access place, this authoritative reference book provides a collection of articles that have made an important impact on policy studies and cover a broad range of significant policy issues, including: equality in education school effectiveness special educational needs school choice fourteen to nineteen education the structure of the educational system. The book has been compiled by the current editors of the journal to show the development of the field, and their specially written introduction contextualises the selection and introduces students to the main issues and current thinking in the field.