Making a Difference

Author(s):  
Chester E. Finn ◽  
Andrew E. Scanlan

This concluding chapter looks at the good that Advanced Placement (AP) is doing against the challenges that it faces now. When AP emerged in the 1950s, and for decades thereafter, poor and minority youngsters had limited access to the best that American education had to offer, and those limits were part of what kept them poor. Today, however, AP's rich curriculum, sophisticated pedagogy, and rigorous expectations are coming within reach of many girls and boys from disadvantaged circumstances, thanks in no small part to the College Board's wholehearted embrace of that additional mission as well as the hard work and support of policy makers, educators, and philanthropists. Yet desirable as it is to open AP-level academics to more kids in more schools and thereby help level the playing fields of life, the reason this is hard to make happen is that genuine success requires so many other things to move in sync, both in school systems and in the lives of kids. Nevertheless, opening the AP door to more kids is a good thing to do, not only for the benefit of those immediately affected but also because its implications should reverberate through what precedes and follows it. The chapter then considers the future of AP program.

Author(s):  
G.W. Sheath

This paper is not a formal review of hill farming literature. Rather, it is my view on the critical challenges and changes that we need to deal with if mixed livestock farming on hill lands is to be successful over the next 20 years. It is my hope that industry leaders, policy makers and agribusiness managers will give consideration to these views. Some people say that it is not smart to look into the rear-vision mirror, but I do not agree. Having a better understanding of the consequences of past events can help guide future decisions and changes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 489-500
Author(s):  
Andrea Valente ◽  
◽  
David Atkinson ◽  

This study aimed to investigate the conditions in which Bitcoin has developed as a leading cryptocurrency and, according to Nakamoto (2008), could become an instrument for everyday payments around the world. In comparison to other digital payment solutions, Bitcoin is based on a peer-to-peer electronic cash system using “the blockchain”. This innovative technology allows for decentralised storage and movement of currency in a fully anonymous way, introducing advantageous methods for encrypted security and faster transactions (Hagiu & Beach, 2014). Scepticism regards Bitcoin’s foundation, energy consumption and price volatility, however, did not take long to arise (Holthaus, 2017). Ten years from its white paper release, Bitcoin is further supported by the same drivers which could sustain its growth as the future of digital payments (Russo, 2018). In order to investigate the key drivers and feasibility of acceptance, a London based survey was used to understand the desirability of Bitcoin as a day-to-day tool for digital payments. Additionally, this research analysed Bitcoin’s stakeholders and forecast drivers of sustainability for its application to become the future of the payment industry. A space which relies on policies that involve multiple layers of society, governments, regulators and tech-firms, all on a global scale. The findings confirmed how the increasing lack of trust of political and financial institutions, coupled with the increasing cases of data-breaches by tech-firms, encouraged over 70% of respondents to consider more decentralised and anonymous methods for their day-to-day actions; like payments. Policy makers need to cope with societies increasingly separating politically but gathering together digitally (LBS, 2017). For Bitcoin to truly establish itself as a global digital payment solution, key stakeholder acceptance must converge alongside the introduction of more robust regulation.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rohani Mohd ◽  
Badrul Hisham Kamaruddin ◽  
Khulida Kirana Yahya ◽  
Elias Sanidas

The purpose of the present study is twofold: first, to investigate the true values of Muslim owner managers; second, to examine the impact of these values on entrepreneurial orientations of Muslim small-scale entrepreneurs. 850 Muslim owner managers were selected randomly using the sampling frame provided by MajlisAmanah Rakyat Malaysia (MARA). 162 completed questionnaires were collected and analyzed. For this paper only two dimensions of entrepreneurial orientations were analyzed: proactive orientation and innovative orientation. Interestingly, the findings revealed that Muslim businessmen/women are honest, loyal, disciplined and hard working. Loyalty and honesty are positively related to proactive orientation, while discipline and hard-work are positively related to innovative orientation. The findings provide implications for existing relevant theories, policy makers, practitioners and learning institutions. 


2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 46-82
Author(s):  
Fathi Malkawi

This paper addresses some of the Muslim community’s concerns regarding its children’s education and reflects upon how education has shaped the position of other communities in American history. It argues that the future of Muslim education will be influenced directly by the present realities and future trends within American education in general, and, more importantly, by the well-calculated and informed short-term and long-term decisions and future plans taken by the Muslim community. The paper identifies some areas in which a wellestablished knowledge base is critical to making decisions, and calls for serious research to be undertaken to furnish this base.


2009 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Park ◽  
Mitchell Chang

This article examines the development of legislation to create a federal designation for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) serving institutions. Specifically, the article draws from interviews with nineteen policy makers, congressional staffers, and community advocates in order to address their motivations for establishing this designation and the related challenges that they encountered. Besides the complexities of ushering legislation through Congress, one of the major challenges highlighted includes the lack of political infrastructure for advocating Asian American issues related to education. Recommendations for the future sustainability of federal support for AAPI serving institutions are also discussed.


Author(s):  
Daniel Kiel

This chapter traces the arc of American education, describing how the tension between liberty and equality has shaped education law and policy every step of the way. The chapter begins by exploring the origins of American education, including the equality-minded adoption of compulsory education and common schools and the liberty-minded desire for parents to control elements of their children’s education. Next, the chapter expands to consideration of equality and liberty in the education of groups. This includes the equality revolutions of the 1960s and 1970s during which schooling became more inclusive of multiple groups of students, and also the liberty-based backlash to those revolutions pursuing greater local control and self-determination. The chapter then highlights the liberty and equality-based tensions impacting contemporary education reform, such as the standards and choice movements. Finally, the chapter looks to the future, arguing that advances in technology, increasing student diversity, and unprecedented flux in the structure of American education will force continued balancing of the values of liberty and equality. Ultimately, the chapter argues that these core democratic impulses—liberty and equality—form a double helix at the core of many of the conflicts in American education law and policy and that management of the relationship between them will continue to drive how Americans respond to educational challenges of the future.


2021 ◽  
Vol 103 (3) ◽  
pp. 54-57
Author(s):  
Carol D. Lee

If schools are to prepare students to participate more productively in civic life, schools will need to ensure that they have opportunities to practice the skills of civic reasoning, argues Carol Lee. Yet schools are challenged by the limits in the curriculum and the difficulty of addressing the different types of prior knowledge that students bring to the classroom. Lee suggests that when schools build their content and pedagogy on current understandings of human learning, they will be better able to enable students from all backgrounds to practice building the understandings they need, now and in the future.


2014 ◽  
Vol 83 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ricky J. Lee ◽  
Sarah L. Steele

The prospect of commercial passenger spaceflight presents an unique opportunity to the space community, comprised not only of the scientists, engineers, enthusiasts and entrepreneurs, but also diplomats, governments, policy makers and legislators, to formulate an internationally acceptable set of requirements, standards and procedures that would give international consistency to operators of commercial passenger spaceflight, both for space tourism and for terrestrial transportation. It is important that the international community avail itself of this opportunity before various countries decide to become “flags of convenience” or to impose more stringent standards than overseas operators can comply with so as to protect a budding industry of their own. This article will explore, from parallels in maritime law and civil aviation law, and drawing from existing domestic examples of regulation, what lessons may be learnt from such existing bodies of law and regulation that may provide some guidance for the future formulation of regulations for on range safety, flight safety or accident investigation relating to commercial passenger spaceflight.


2015 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-193
Author(s):  
John Adams ◽  
Andrew YC Wong

Purpose – This paper publishes summary results for the first time of a major survey of senior financial practitioners undertaken in Hong Kong and Shanghai in 2005, and compares these with the Global Financial Centre Index first created in 2007 to determine the extent to which both are consistent. Design/methodology/approach – The research is based on a detailed survey and utilizes principal-components analysis to determine the primary factors relevant to the development of both cities as international financial centres (IFCs) and those which the respondents consider will be relevant in the future. Findings – The paper demonstrates that the key “success factors” for both cities in 2005 remain very important in the global financial centres index (GFCI) analysis ten years later but not necessarily by the same ranking. We also found that a number of the “primary” factors change when respondents are asked to consider future success factors. Research limitations/implications – The survey was conducted ten years ago; however, the results continue to have significant reliability and validity - especially when compared with the results of the GFCI report of 2014. Practical implications – The paper should enable policy makers and practitioners to better understand the future policy environment needed for extending the financial centre status of both Hong Kong and Shanghai. Originality/value – This is the first time (some) of the survey findings that have ever been published, and they represent a rich source of information – however, the authors will be examining the survey data for future publications.


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