Mission matters: The cost of small high schools revisited

With the financial support of several large foundations and the federal government, creating small schools has become a prominent high school reform strategy in many large American cities. While some research supports this strategy, little research assesses the relative costs of these smaller schools. We use data on over 200 New York City high schools, from 1996 through 2003, to estimate school cost functions relating per pupil expenditures to school size, controlling for school output and quality, student characteristics, and school organization.We find that the structure of costs differs across schools depending upon mission—comprehensive or themed. At their current levels of outputs, themed schools minimize per pupil costs at smaller enrollments than comprehensive schools, but these optimally sized themed schools also cost more per pupil than optimally sized comprehensive schools. We also find that both themed and comprehensive high schools at actual sizes are smaller than their optimal sizes.     

Balancing difference and the common good: lessons from a post‐conflict society

Northern Ireland endured a quarter century of political violence from 1969 until the declaration of ceasefires in 1994. Although a political settlement was signed in 1998, the actual implementation of agreed institutions has proved to be very difficult and the actual institutions have been fragile (and are currently under suspension). The purpose of this paper is to examine aspects of the role of education through the years of violence and in the post‐conflict situation. The education system in Northern is divided on the basis of religion, with less than 10% of pupils attending mixed religion schools. There have been a variety of curricular and other initiatives over the years, but their success to date has been limited. The paper will argue that the contribution of education to more positive community relations has been limited because of a tendency to over‐privilege difference. More particularly, the paper will argue that education has failed to grapple with the main consequence of separate schools which is that they perpetuate divisions in the wider society. The paper will suggest that if education is to serve as a vehicle for promoting a discourse of a common good and contribute to the construction of the architecture of a shared society then a more pro‐active approach will be needed in future. The two main initiatives that provide the possibility for such a contribution are the development of a programme for local and global citizenship and support for partnership activities between schools.     

Motivating Individuals: Growing research from a “fragile base”

Tertiary Education and Management - Faculty around the world are experiencing changes in their academic work. While “traditional” universities are responding to demands for greater...