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Employing an institutional logics framework and critical discourse analysis, this study examines the discourse of participants in a stakeholder-feedback meeting about a proposal by the Denver Public School board to extend collective bargaining rights to teachers in the district's innovation schools. The findings provide insight into the logics that control how teacher unions and collective bargaining agreements are understood by proponents of autonomous schools and portrayed to the general public through media. The analysis explores how connections to power and status allowed some stakeholder groups to influence the board to revise the policy to one more favorable toward market-oriented school reform. In this case, the dominant narrative that emerged from the stakeholder feedback cycle was one in which the collective bargaining rights of teachers were positioned as a threat to autonomous schools’ ability to provide “what's best for kids” in their classrooms. 

This paper discusses one of Furlong's major areas of work, the theory and practice of teacher education. Taking up where our joint publication Teacher Education in Transition: Re-Forming Professionalism? (Open University Press 2000) left off, it examines how accelerated moves towards school-based teacher education, as well as increased school autonomy, are impacting upon notions of teacher professionalism and professional formation in England. It looks at how in this context a 'core' professionalism mandated by central government through its teaching standards is being supplemented or even replaced by a series of 'local' professionalisms and the 'branded' professionalisms of Teach First and Academy chains. The paper then considers the implications of these developments for the future of Education as a subject of study in universities and, in particular, for the vision set out in Furlong's recent book Education: an anatomy of the discipline (Routledge 2013).

New small autonomous schools initiatives are relatively recent educational change strategies that in some urban districts aim to remake how district central offices function as institutions. In this article, the author draws on theories of organizational innovation and learning to reveal how central office administrators participate in these change processes, what outcomes are associated with their efforts, and the conditions that help or hinder their work. The data came from a 3-year qualitative investigation of these dynamics in two districts. The results show that particular bridging and buffering activities by certain central office administrators were consistent with policy goals and linked to increasing district supports for implementation. Particular dimensions of the institutional environments of central offices shaped central office administrators' choices and actions.

Unlock the potential of public-private partnerships in education. This groundbreaking study offers fresh empirical evidence on the effectiveness and cost of various educational models in developing countries across Africa, Latin America, and Asia. Delve into rigorous case studies examining voucher programs and faith-based schools, uncovering key insights into school performance, targeting, and cost-effectiveness. Discover how these partnerships impact student achievement, literacy, and numeracy, and learn what factors drive success or failure. Emerging Evidence on Vouchers and Faith-Based Providers in Education is essential reading for policymakers, researchers, and practitioners seeking innovative solutions to improve educational outcomes and promote social mobility in developing nations. Explore the challenges and opportunities of these partnerships and gain a deeper understanding of how to create more effective and equitable education systems.

Public-private partnerships in education: an overview / Felipe Barrera-Osorio, Harry Anthony Patrinos, and Quentin Wodon -- The effectiveness of franchises and independent private schools in Chile's national voucher program / Gregory Elacqua, Dante Contreras, and Felipe Salazar -- Cognitive ability, heterogeneity, endogeneity and returns to schooling in Chile: outcomes of the 1981 capitation grant scheme / Harry Anthony Patrinos and Chris Sakellariou -- When schools are the ones that choose: the effect of screening in Chile / Dante Contreras, Sebastian Bustos, and Paulina Sepulveda -- How do vouchers work?: evidence from Colombia / Eric Bettinger, Michael Kremer, and Juan E. Saavedra -- The performance of decentralized school systems: evidence from Fe y Alegría in Venezuela / Hunt Allcott and Daniel E. Ortega -- Literacy and numeracy in faith-based and government schools in Sierra Leone / Quentin Wodon and Yvonne Ying -- Comparing faith-based and government schools in the Democratic Republic of Congo / Prospere Backiny-Yetna and Quentin Wodon -- Student achievement in religious and secular secondary schools in Bangladesh / Mohammad Niaz Asadullah, Nazmul Chaudhury and Amit Dar -- Does money matter?: the effect of private educational expenditures on academic performance / Changhui Kang -- Comparing the cost of public, religious, and private schooling in Cameroon / Prospere Backiny-Yetna and Quentin Wodon.

The pursuit of equity in and through education is a proclaimed goal of the Gillard Government's national education agenda for schooling. However, it is intriguing that despite its visible presence in policy rhetoric, there is no articulated government view about the meaning of equity. In its absence, equity in education has been shaped, by default, by the discourse of the economy, the market and 'transparent accountability'. These discourses have given equity a very individualistic policy framing, involving an identification of which students are at risk, and the formulation of policies which ensure that these students in particular are the beneficiaries of choice and accountability in order to 'close the achievement gap'. Such policies have been borrowed from overseas and this article argues that just as they have manifestly failed in other parts of the world, so too will they fail in Australia. The article traces the genesis and outcomes of the accountability strategies borrowed from places like New York to show why they are more likely to impede than to enhance equity in education, and concludes by proposing alternative approaches designed to achieve more equitable educational outcomes. [Author abstract]

Developmental dyslexia is a complex reading and writing disorder with strong genetic components. In previous genetic studies about dyslexia, a number of candidate genes have been identified. These include DCDC2, which has repeatedly been associated with developmental dyslexia in various European and American populations. However, data regarding this relationship are varied according to population. The Uyghur people of China represent a Eurasian population with an interesting genetic profile. Thus, this group may provide useful information about the association between DCDC2 gene polymorphisms and dyslexia. In the current study, we examined genetic data from 392 Uyghur children aged 8–12 years old from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. Participants included 196 children with dyslexia and 196 grade-, age-, and gender-matched controls. DNA was isolated from oral mucosal cell samples and fourteen single nucleotide polymorphisms（rs6456593, rs1419228, rs34647318, rs9467075, rs793862, rs9295619, rs807701, rs807724, rs2274305, rs7765678, rs4599626, rs6922023, rs3765502, and rs1087266） in DCDC2 were screened via the SNPscan method. We compared SNP frequencies in five models（Codominant, Dominant, Recessive, Heterozygote advantage, and Allele） between the two groups by means of the chi-squared test. A single-locus analysis indicated that, with regard to the allele frequency of these polymorphisms, three SNPs（rs807724, rs2274305, and rs4599626） were associated with dyslexia. rs9467075 and rs2274305 displayed significant associations with developmental dyslexia under the dominant model. rs6456593 and rs6922023 were significantly associated with developmental dyslexia under the dominant model and in the heterozygous genotype. Additionally, we discovered that the T-G-C-T of the four-marker haplotype（rs9295619-rs807701-rs807724-rs2274305） and the T-A of the two-marker haplotype（rs3765502-1087266） were significantly different between cases and controls. Thus, we conclude that DCDC2 gene polymorphisms are associated with developmental dyslexia in Chinese Uyghur children.

Autonomous Vehicle technology is quickly expanding its market and has found in Silicon Valley, California, a strong foothold for preliminary testing on public roads. In an effort to promote safety and transparency to consumers, the California Department of Motor Vehicles has mandated that reports of accidents involving autonomous vehicles be drafted and made available to the public. The present work shows an in-depth analysis of the accident reports filed by different manufacturers that are testing autonomous vehicles in California (testing data from September 2014 to March 2017). The data provides important information on autonomous vehicles accidents' dynamics, related to the most frequent types of collisions and impacts, accident frequencies, and other contributing factors. The study also explores important implications related to future testing and validation of semi-autonomous vehicles, tracing the investigation back to current literature as well as to the current regulatory panorama.

This paper studied the prescribed-time platooning control problem for connected autonomous vehicles subject to unknown dynamics and stochastic actuator faults. Precisely, to compensate for the effect of unknown dynamic behaviour, the radial basis function-based adaptive observer design was developed that incorporates into the closed-loop control system, which enhances the robustness of the proposed control algorithm. In addition, physical actuator fault factors are also taken into account, which are denoted in terms of a Bernoulli-distributed stochastic variable. Lyapunov stability theory and the stochastic analysis method is used to derive the stability of the addressed control system. Finally, a numerical example with detailed simulation results is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed control design.

Objective This study aims to explore the relationship between social support and exercise persistence among junior high school students. Furthermore, it introduces exercise self-efficacy and autonomous motivation as mediating variables to analyze the pathway through which social support influences exercise persistence in this population. Methods A total of 4,294 junior high school students from 13 prefecture-level cities in Jiangsu Province were surveyed using the Social Support Scale, Exercise Self-Efficacy Scale, Autonomous Motivation Scale, and Exercise Persistence Scale. After data cleaning, 3,776 valid responses were retained, yielding a valid response rate of 83%. Mediation analysis and bootstrapping methods were employed to test the hypothesized mediation model. Results (1) Social support was significantly positively correlated with exercise persistence ( r  = 0.275), exercise self-efficacy ( r  = 0.045), and autonomous motivation ( r  = 0.245). A small but significant positive correlation was also found between exercise self-efficacy and autonomous motivation ( r  = 0.044). (2) Mediation analysis indicated that social support not only had a direct positive effect on exercise persistence among junior high school students but also exerted indirect effects via exercise self-efficacy and autonomous motivation. The total effect was 0.368, with a direct effect of 0.239 and an indirect effect of 0.129. Conclusion (1) Social support plays a significant and direct role in promoting exercise persistence among junior high school students. (2) Exercise self-efficacy and autonomous motivation serve as important mediators in the relationship between social support and exercise persistence, with autonomous motivation exerting a stronger mediating effect. (3) A complete mediation pathway was identified, progressing from social support to exercise self-efficacy, then to autonomous motivation, and ultimately to exercise persistence, although the effect size of this pathway was relatively small.