The dissertation describes a study of the instructional validity of the Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards (AIMS), a standards-based assessment. The study addresses the third- and fifth-grade mathematics portion of the 2005 AIMS test, focusing on two performance objectives per grade level. The study centers on the following questions: Can variation in students' mathematics achievement on AIMS be explained by instructional validity measures, namely: (1) alignment between test items and instructional characteristics and (2) by the degree of teacher emphasis on the two skills of interest to the study? Does the relationship between these measures and AIMS performance differ across grade levels? What possible explanations exist to account for grade level differences? Is there a relationship between the instructional validity measures and performance on the objectives of interest to this study?The dissertation discusses the evolution of thinking about instructional validity as standardized testing has changed. The study methods, including developing alignment measures from interview transcripts and classroom assessment examples collected from 16 third-grade teachers and 20 fifth-grade teachers in one school district are also described. Findings include that, although the method of using qualitative data to gauge instructional validity yields rich information about instructional practice, there was little instructional variation between classrooms in the district studied. This may have occurred because the district requires teachers to provide instruction exactly as specified in the district-adopted mathematics text. Some between-grade level differences do exist in the curricular alignment with AIMS. Teachers attempted to overcome this in their instruction despite district mandates to the contrary. Results support the instructional sensitivity of AIMS at third grade, but not at fifth grade. Differences in instructional sensitivity across grade levels might be linked to curricular differences; some third-grade teachers reported supplementing the curriculum to address the state standards while fifth-grade teachers largely reported that this was not necessary. Interestingly, the degree of alignment at third- and fifth-grade did not vary, although fifth-grade teachers placed more emphasis the study objectives. This speaks to third-grade teacher commitment to address the standards, and the challenges in emphasizing them when district-adopted curricula are not well-aligned with state standards.

The problem with unequal distribution of land ownership, in developing countries, has been debated in numerous papers. It is important to solve this problem and one of the major contributions in finding a solution is the implementation of a land reform. The aim of this paper is to elucidate the outcome of two different approaches to land reform, i.e. coercive and market based, and to find out how successful they are in reducing the concentration of land ownership in a sustainable direction. The conclusion of this paper is that neither of the approaches alone is successful in this task, the strength lies instead in a combination of the coercive and market based approach.

No description available.

No description available.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.T.R.P.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

The beginning of the twentieth century in Russia, especially the years around 1905, was a period of deep, severe economical and political crisis. It was heightened by the lost war against Japan in 1904-1905 and the violent social disturbances of 1904-1907. It was also a period of great social, political and ideological upheaval. Efforts were made to save and preserve the economical, social and political system, to reform it, to change it profoundly as well as to overthrow it through revolution. Those years can be described as a turning point in Russia's history, an era of struggle about the future direction of Russian society. / One of the attempted solutions to the most important Russian problems of that time was the set of measures and reforms proposed in 1906-1911 during the prime-ministership of Peter Arkad'evich Stolypin. His policies and his efforts to implement them have been the subject of heated discussion and controversy among politicians, political thinkers and historians, as well as among those they affected. / This thesis is devoted to an examination of Stolypin's reforms and their effect on the economic, social and political development of the Russian Empire. Their relevance today is suggested by the renewed attempts of the successor states of the Soviet Union to privatize land ownership and at last solve the agrarian problems which Stolypin's assassination and the coming of the First World War cut short. It is this that makes a fresh appraisal of Stolypin timely.

"The fundamental problem facing the world to-day is the rapidly increasing pressure of population on physical resources, particularly on resources of land," said Professor Dudley Stamp (77:13). In 1830, Reverend Thomas Malthus, in his "A Summary View of the Principle of Population" stated that the population tends to grow in a geometrical progression. [...]

Aukštojo mokslo ir studijų sistemos pertvarka Lietuvoje vyksta jau nuo 1991 metų. 2000 metais priimtas Lietuvos Respublikos aukštojo mokslo įstatymas bei 2006 - 2007 metų atitinkami dokumentai leidžia aukštojo mokslo ir studijų sistemoje vykdytas pertvarkas grupuoti į kelis sąlyginius etapus. 2006 metais LR Vyriausybės patvirtintas Lietuvos aukštojo mokslo sistemos 2006 – 2010 metų plėtros planas bei 2007 metų birželio 14 dieną Lietuvos parlamentinių politinių partijų susitarimas Dėl mokslo ir studijų sistemos pertvarkos principų – įvardijami dokumentais, sąlygojusiais naujos, giluminės bei kryptingos aukštojo mokslo ir studijų sistemos reformos pradžią. Darbo objektas – aukštojo mokslo reformos politikos formavimas Lietuvoje, koncentruojantis į pastarąjį pertvarkos etapą. Darbe nagrinėjami trys prioritetiniai klausimai, įtraukti į aukštojo mokslo ir studijų reformos politikos formuotojų darbotvarkes: 1) studijų finansavimo pertvarka; 2) universitetų institucinės autonomijos klausimas; 3) universitetų vidinio valdymo modelio pertvarka. Remiantis viešosios politikos ciklo teorija, dabartiniame aukštojo mokslo reformos politikos formavimo procese stebimos darbotvarkės nustatymo, politikos formulavimo fazės; konkrečių pasirinktų alternatyvų įgyvendinimą numatoma pradėti 2008 – 2009 metais. Todėl darbe siekiama sistemingai apžvelgti pagrindinių aukštojo mokslo reformos politikos formuotojų pozicijas dėl jau trijų minėtų klausimų tinkamiausių pertvarkos alternatyvų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Reforms in Lithuania‘s higher education and study system have started in 1991. A Law of Higher Education adopted in 2000 and respective documents from 2006-2007 allow grouping of reforms carried out within the system of higher education and studies into few conditional phases. Lithuanian higher education system development plan for 2006 – 2010 approved in 2006 by Lithuanian Government and convention regarding the principles of reforms in education and study signed by Lithuanian parliamentary political parties on 14th of June 2007 have been endorsed by documents, which stipulated the initiation of modern, deep and focussed reform in higher education and study. Research object is a formation of higher education reform policy in Lithuania, with a focus on a latter phase of the reforms. Research analyses three priority questions included into the agenda of persons, responsible for formation of higher education and study reform policy: 1) reform for higher education funding; 2) institutional autonomy of universities; 3) reform of internal management model of universities. According to the theory of public policy cycle, in nowadays process of higher education reform policy formation there are observed phases of setting an agenda and formation of policy. The implementation of chosen specific alternatives is foreseen to be initiated in 2008 – 2009. Therefore the research aims to review in systematic way positions of the leading higher education reform policy makers... [to full text]

This thesis showed an analysis of what happened when global educational reforms were implemented in a local Moroccan culture context. Through analyzing and deconstructing discourses in policy documents, as well as qualitative interviews with teachers and pupils in municipal uppersecondary schools and comparing these to each other, a picture was given of what happened in the meeting between the new policies and the implementation of them locally; how they were implemented, resisted and negotiated by different parties concerned. The educational policy, advocating e.g. Education for All, and acquisition of foreign language skills, reproduced social hierarchies when implemented in the Moroccan context. Post-colonial languages, such as French, worked as a class cursor, creating a rift between the social classes and their access to higher education. Student-centered methods were resisted by the teachers, but negotiated by the pupils.

Drawing upon court files in the Liaoning Provincial Archives, this dissertation addresses the question of the transformation of the civil justice system in Fengtian Province in the early twentieth century. Fengtian Province was among the few provinces where judicial-legal reforms were first launched during the late Qing's New Policies period. In the early Republic, judicial-legal reforms were continuously pursued under the governance of the warlord Zhang Zuolin. The accommodation of judicial-legal modernity within warlord politics was a result of the simultaneous presence of local elite activism, nationalism and the dominance of republican ideology. / To demonstrate judicial-legal modernity in this frontier province, this dissertation covers four main areas: the bureaucratization of the court system and mediation mechanism; the formalization of civil procedures; the "discovery" and modernization of custom in judicial process; and the narrowing of the power disparity in gender in divorce law and practice. / The bureaucratization of the court system reveals not only the tendency of separating judicial power from executive power, but also the professionalization of judicial officials, including lower-level judicial personnel. The bureaucratization of mediation locates the point at wards under the ward-village system implemented in the 1920s by the Fengtian provincial authority. The ward head, as a salaried sub-village government official was able to exercise his power to mediate civil disputes. This point epitomizes the early effort made by the modern state to interfere in the arena of popular justice. The formalization of civil procedures reflects the transformation of court practice from a simple, customary way of finding facts and applying laws to a practice guided by a complex, codified procedural law based on a Germanic-Japanese model. In speaking of the "discovery" and modernization of custom, I address not only the phenomena of "discovering" local customs and recognizing them as a source of authority for adjudicating cases by judges who had modern legal training, but also of the elaborate, selective screening policy towards custom, ushered in by the Supreme Court due to their concern with public policy and social morals. Narrowing the power disparity in gender is examined in the light of changes to divorce law and practice. By following the precedents laid down by the Supreme Court, the lower courts attempted to readdress the unbalanced power relationship between men and women inherited from Qing law.