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One of the first - possibly the first - plans for primary education in Malta was the one advanced by Michael Anthony Vassalli, published in 1796. This plan is a four-page section entitled Progetto which is itself part of a forty-two page treatise introducing his Ktyb yl Klym Malti mfisser byl-Latin u byt-Talyan sive liber dictionum Melitensium, hoc est Michaelis Antonii Vassalli Lexicon Melitense-Latino-Italum published in Rome by Antonio Fulgoni. Very rightly, Vassalli is regarded as the 'Father of the Maltese Tongue', and it was indeed mainly to further the cause of his native language that Vassalli promulgated the plan under discussion. ; N/A

In this Article, I join these calls for the federal government to lead states to reform their school funding systems. In doing so, I build upon my recent scholarship that calls for additional federal leadership insisting that states prioritize equity and excellence in education. I recommend that we restructure education federalism by requiring the federal government to serve as the ultimate guarantor of equal access to an excellent education. My theory of education federalism embraces federal policymaking strengths in education, such as federal research, technical, and financial assistance, that support state and local reforms to promote equity and excellence. This theory would retain state and local control over education where states and localities possess superior policymaking strengths, including preserving states as laboratories of reform that determine how to achieve equity and excellence. It also would promote new forms of state and local control over education by enhancing state and local capacity for reform. This Article provides a practical application of my theory for reconstructing education federalism in ways that would support equal access to an excellent education. My analysis serves two goals. First, I present research regarding some of the central school funding system shortcomings that may not be widely understood. The shortcomings that I analyze are: the provision of less revenue to districts with substantial concentrations of students with greater needs; the failure to tailor funding to the objective of the education system; substandard funding amounts; and insufficient oversight of school funding. Second, scholars have increasingly begun to call for a federal role in education funding by proposing a single-step reform. In contrast, I contend that the United States should incrementally increase federal influence over school funding to prompt states to maintain equitable funding systems.

A fundamental requirement of democracy is the existence of contested elections. Our study documents and explains trends in uncontested seats in the U.S. Congress and state legislatures over time. We uncover a striking inconsistency in the health of elections: the frequency of uncontested seats in Congress has declined while the frequency of uncontested seats in state legislatures has actually increased. To explore these divergent trends, we consider factors that are common to both Congress and state legislatures such as the redistricting cycle but also variables that are unique to the state level. Our analysis points to the relative "flippability" of Congress compared to many state legislatures as a factor behind diverging levels of contestation. While many state legislatures have become bastions for dominant parties, congressional districts in those same states are often nonetheless viewed as enticing targets because they contribute to control of the federal government.

Outward Appearances: Dressing State and Society in Indonesia. Henk Schulte Nordholt. ed. Leiden, Netherlands: KITLV Press, 1997. 327 pp.

This contribution investigates the role of education in domestic terrorism for 133 countries between 1984 and 2007. The findings point at a nontrivial effect of education on terrorism. Lower education (primary education) tends to promote terrorism in a cluster of countries where the socioeconomic, political and demographic conditions are unfavorable, while higher education (university education) reduces terrorism in a cluster of countries where conditions are more favorable. This suggests that country-specific circumstances mediate the effect of education on the (opportunity) costs and benefits of terrorism. For instance, the prevalence of poor structural conditions in combination with advances in education may explain past and present waves of terrorism and political instability in the Middle East. The results of this study imply that promoting education needs to be accompanied by sound structural change so that it can positively interact with (individual and social) development, thereby reducing terrorism.

AbstractThe problems of implementing randomized tests in educational settings are not trivial. This paper covers the intents and the compromises, the successes and the failures, and the lessons of three major projects.

Digitalization in the field of education for sustainable development (ESD) has gained attention in the last decade. In particular, technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) offer new ways to deliver educational content on sustainable development by simulating real-world experiences and using immersive and interactive formats for learning. Using an explorative qualitative research approach, the benefits of AR and VR technologies in the context of ESD are assessed. The results of a first expert panel show that AR and VR technologies are particularly suitable for sustainability topics when an understanding of action and the transfer of knowledge and values are to be promoted among learners.