A global education race now pits countries, regions, and school systems against one another. The racecourse has been created by a small number of influential international testing programs, and the popular media announces winners and losers. Fear of falling behind haunts policy-makers and shapes educational priorities around the world. But are we running in the right direction? We all have a stake in education, and as informed citizens we need to understand the increasingly influential and controversial phenomenon of international testing and what it means for students and the future of our schools. The Global Education Race provides educators, parents, and policy-makers with a lively and accessible introduction to the most influential international testing program: PISA, the Programme for International Student Assessment, operated by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The authors draw on the latest research on assessment and education policy to provide a clear account of how the test works and to investigate PISA’s influence on educational goals and practice in schools around the world. The book aims to provoke informed debate about the role of testing, data, and comparison in educational change. Includes a foreword by David C. Berliner and Pasi Sahlberg.
Family Album utilizes the vernacular photography collection of James Rutkowski to examine the genre and to explore the photograph-collecting phenomenon. The heavily illustrated book features essays on these subjects by Michael Hall and Shirley Wajda as well as an interview with Rutkowski
The demand for workforce skills is changing in Vietnam’s dynamic economy. In addition to job-specific skills, Vietnamese employers value cognitive skills, like problem solving, and behavioral skills, like team work. This book presents an agenda of change for Vietnam’s education system to prepare workers to succeed in Vietnam’s modernizing economy.
Since the early 1990s the transition economy countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia have had to adapt their pension systems in minor and often very major ways. Some of the changes relate to shrinking contribution bases and the inability of government's to finance prior commitments, while still having to protect the pensioned populations from poverty. Other changes, however, reflect the need to make pension systems more sustainable in light of forthcoming demographic changes. The reforms entail a move away from a single-pillar pay-as-you-go defined benefit systems toward multi-pillar systems that include a funded defined contribution component, and change that convert remaining pay-as-you-go components into ones that are more self sustaining and transparent. The paper describes ongoing developments, assesses the effects of current and forthcoming challenges in light of potential labor market changes, and examines choices for a new pensions system with respect to the organization, administration, guarantees, transition arrangements, participation requirements, role of the government, annuitization, and other factors. The paper concludes that though a 'one-size-fits-all' approach is clearly not appropriate, some practices emerging from the experiences in this region and elsewhere may offer useful guidance to others as they undertake deeper pension reforms.
It will come as no surprise to pastors and their families that the vocation of a minister involves stress. In fact, it involves a great deal of stress. Unfortunately, when many pastors encounter stress they tend to hunker down in the hopes of just surviving. All too frequently the stressful situations that have not been dealt with continue to build up, and the result is fatigue and burnout. In Wind and Whirlwind, Dr. David Moffett-Moore presents a better way. He has survived the whirlwind in his own ministry, and more importantly, with the help of many others he has learned to turn the stress into an opportunity for growth, both for himself and for the congregations he serves. In a series of 16 short chapters, he will help you identify the sources of stress, discover ways to manage it spiritually and emotionally, and point you to spiritual disciplines and practices that will help make you a better person and bring success to your ministry. While the chapters are short, they do not present easy, trite answers to complex problems. Rather, they will help you strengthen yourself, so you can discern the way God is working in your life and ministry. Each chapter presents topics for meditation and questions for discussion. It is designed to be used by clergy peer groups.
In this book, David Baily Harned makes a persuasive case for the significance of patience as an essential ingredient of the moral life. In a bold and invigorating manner, the author addresses contemporary existence--the lives of individuals, families, communities, and nations--and demonstrates how the Christian vision informs our efforts to live in a chaotic and violent world as faithful, hopeful, loving children of God. This essay in theological ethics is rooted in classic texts: the Old and New Testaments, as well as the writings of Augustine, Gregory I, Thomas Aquinas, Thomas a Kempis, John Calvin, Soren Kierkegaard, and W. H. Vanstone. In graceful prose and through careful analysis, David Harned both inspires and instructs. This new edition also includes an afterword by one of his former students who explores the value of this study by applying its insights to the life and leadership of George Washington.
In the introduction, United Methodist Pastor and Author David Alexander describes The Deep End by saying, "These chapters contain my reflections on some of the more difficult questions that I believe every person of faith must wrestle with at some point in their journey. They are questions I have grappled with in my own journey. In my work as a pastor, these are questions that people ask me all the time. And while the whole notion of pursuing these questions can be a bit unsettling, I'm convinced that this pursuit is precisely what propels us further on our journey." If you have ever felt like the process of finding faith feels like you are losing faith, The Deep End is the book for you.
Suicide, homosexuality, straying children, abortion, pornography, euthanasia, prescription addiction, infidelity, and more—David Ray covers it all in his life guide Secrets Behind Closed Doors. Delivering common sense answers, he shares his wisdom gained from decades of personal experience and counseling as a minister. An excellent resource for those of us who have run up against the stony parts of life and need help figuring it out. Each chapter contains a story of someone within the clutches of a problem and how the person solved it using Biblical principles. Then he delivers Guidebook Answers, an Authors Postscript, special sections with on-line surveys and questionnaires, and a provocative list of statements in the Discussion Room that make this an excellent resource for small groups. Filled with love and compassion, this is a book made to share.
David Voss is a Presbyterian minister who has spent some forty-eight years as a pastor, mental hospital chaplain and pastoral counselor. His yellow brick road has included degrees from the University of Georgia, Union Theological Seminary in Virginia, Harvard Divinity School, and San Francisco Theological Seminary and a clinical internship at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington, D.C. His most important learning, however, has come from the thousands of hours as a companion on the road with persons who have come to him for help, gathered in groups to help each other, sat with him to reflect on his work, shared his life's journey as friend or family member. David, a native of Georgia, now lives in Cary, North Carolina with his wife Lynn and in close touch with his three daughters and five grandchildren.
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