Computer supported collaborative learning has the potential for driving educational reform efforts, but there are many challenges to face before achieving that vision. Two of the most critical are achieving teacher buy-in and motivating students to participate in a knowledge-building community. We have developed a new CSCL tool whose flexibility is inspiring good teachers to create exciting new...

In May of 1992 the Mexican federal government transferred to the 31 states responsibility over basic and teacher education. This decentralization strategy was at the core of an overall educational reform that began in late 1980's. The central government had strong motives to decentralize the educational institution because the highly centralized system was notoriously rigid, inefficient, confli...

We analyze the reallocations of educational expenditures required to equalize opportunities, according to the theory of Roemer (1998). Using the NLSYM data set, we find that implementing an equal-opportunity policy across men of different races, by using educational finance as the instrument, and ensuring that no race received less than the average observed nationally, would require spending ni...