We have tried to make public policies and laws as tools to innovate public education. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the citizen proposals and the lawmakerinitiated bills of 2015 and 2016 in Japan, which would promote the educational opportunities for at-risk kids excluded from public schooling. First of all, according to John Kingdom’ s ‘ policy window’ model, I especially focused on ‘ problems stream’ and p‘olicy stream’ to clarify the process of setting up the bills. Secondly, I also pay attention to the new public management in Japanese education as a key policy stream. As a result of analyzing, I found out to incubate two innovative tools in those proposals and bills. One is an alternative form of the public education providers which is recognized as a kind of ‘ corporate voluntarism’ conceptualized by Michael B.Katz. The other is a personalized/individualized learning plan that will be similar to IEP (Individualized Education Program). Finally, the bill of 2016 is still under discussion of Diet members in May, 2016, and therefore nobody knows whether it would be enacted or not.

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This paper considers, in a fundamental way, the compulsory education system and discusses the neo-liberal education reforms from a critical perspective. The purpose of this study is to find the general principles of schools and education systems in a welfare state as responding to neo-liberal policies. This paper is organized as follows; Firstly, through a study of the work of Teruhisa HORIO about the concepts of compulsory education and parents’ responsibility for their children to attend the school, I show that the participation of parents and students in school management is the most acceptable system as a matter of logic. Secondly, I outline the characteristics of the ‘ schoolizaion movement (Gakko Zukuri)’ in Japan after World War II. Its character is the practical pursuit of the participation of parents and students in a school against the state-control policy in Japanese educational administration. Thirdly, I find the integrated relationship between today’ s educational policies and the neo-liberal reform policies of current government.

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OECD Tohoku School is an educational project to foster a workforce that can lead the local recovery from the East Japan Disaster. It is hosted by Fukushima University in cooperation with MEXT (the Ministry of Education), and OECD. This two-and-a-half year project involves about 100 students from junior and senior high schools in three heavily-damaged prefectures. This project is not only for recovery, but also for opening a new way for the future. Through this project, students are expected to develop a capability for innovation, including skills for leadership, creativity, planning, critical and constructive thinking, getting things done, negotiation, cooperation, and thinking globally. In addition, through the cooperation of industry, government, and academia, an unprecedented inter-regional network has been established, creating a bridge to education reform. Based on the self-reported data from students, we analyzed the educational elements (growth factors) of OECD Tohoku School which created the growth of students. The common top 3 growth factors of all students are interactions with students from different regions, interactions with students of different ages, and discussions and activities for regional future. They are considered as the frameworks of this project.

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Normally there is a school in a local community. Local people support schools and children learn traditional culture and history in/from the community. However, communities in Fukushima’ s Futaba-gun were shattered by the Great East Japan Earthquake and the accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Station in 2011. In this situation, the role of the school is to make a local community in it. Every place where schoolchildren learn can be considered as a school. In other words, there is a community in a school. Children visit temporary housing to interact with senior citizens and invite people to the schoolhouse to learn local culture and tradition. It can help to rebuild relationships in the community. In the meantime, it was considered that a new educational program was crucial not only for the revitalization of communities but also for creating the future of communities. So education superintendents of 8 towns/villages worked out the policy vision for innovation in education at Futaba-gun. According to this vision, new“Futaba Future School”was established in 2015. Also we pursue the program to master the skills of problem solving etc. called “Furusato Souzou Gaku”at all schools of Futaba-gun from elementary school through high school. In this program students can learn their local culture and tradition, work with their local communities and try to plan the future of the communities.

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Hit by a destructive earthquake and a nuclear power plant disaster to an extent unprecedented in human history, we are required to consider our widely accepted values and society from their very foundations and then create new ways of life and our new society. That is why we have decided to strongly introduce“futurecreating education”into our school. Our educational goal is to develop “innovators”who can innovate their society as well as themselves. Our school motto is“independence,”“collaboration”and“creativity,”which are ideals for innovation. We are doing our best to work on our unprecedented educational practice toward reconstruction from the nuclear power plant disaster. Though a lot of our students were forced to flee their homes, they have taken their first steps toward overcoming their difficulties. On the other hand, we still have a lot of problems that are yet to be solved. We believe the students who “are trying to challenge themselves”are not only our hope but also the future of our country. We also would like to continue to challenge ourselves without being afraid of making mistakes.

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After the nuclear power plant disaster in Fukushima, a large-scale evacuation of residents had occurred and influenced the children, their parents and the schools. In this paper, I considered ①the situation of the evacuation life after the disaster, ②the resumption of schooling, ③education for reconstruction. Education for reconstruction should not be a precedent of the neo-liberal education reform, but a tool for true realization of children's rights and equal opportunity in education. For that purpose, children, parents and residents must be encouraged to express their points of view. In addition, the autonomous efforts of the schools must be inspired, assisted and promoted.

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For the purpose of promoting the capital accumulation of monopoly capitals, the national government promotes the neoliberal structural reforms as the national project to reduce the welfare benefits to the public, such as public education, social welfare and public health. Since the public education is governed by local government, the national government is forcing local governments to carry out the neoliberal reform of education. However, local governments assume the responsibility to guarantee the right to education, and have a mission to underpin the realization of educational value by the schools and teachers. For this reason, the local government, as the facilitator of the neoliberal education policy, is faced with a serious dilemma. 　　In carrying forward the research of local government education policy under the structural reform, I think the following points are important. 　　1In order to overcome the inhibition of human growth and development caused by the neoliberal structural reforms, the locality must be reborn as a place of reproduction of materials as well as humanity itself, 2to promote the rebirth of local governments as the political and administrative form of residents’ autonomy.

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In recent years, some local education boards across Japan have formulated standards for classroom teaching. These standards provide models of enacting innovative pedagogies that the national Course of Study promotes, such as application as well as attainment of knowledge, language activities, collaborative problem solving, and the use of information and communication technology (ICT). In some cases, they also provide models of classroom discipline to be applied to students. The boards are promulgating these standards through in-service training sessions with the aim of ensuring that teachers teach accordingly. It is assumed that local education boards can meet local educational needs by virtue of these standards. However, in reality, the classroom standards often only provide the means for implementing national educational initiatives in classrooms. Furthermore, while teaching professionalism will improve if teachers are given the freedom to study these standards, the standards themselves are likely to preset prescribed pedagogy and classroom interactions that may impede the professional development of teachers. Lastly but not least importantly, some of the models of classroom discipline fail to take into consideration students’ different needs, which is something that is worthy of criticism.

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The purpose is to clarify the conditions that function effectively for the joint implementation of educational administration under a partial-affairs association system. The paper focusses on the case of Haga district integrated administration of a large region office work association. 　　Findings of this paper are the following two points; 　　First, the presence of any preexisting factors and previous strong unity consciousness under local residents is effectively acting for the joint implementation of educational administration. From the viewpoint of the horizontal completion, it could be one of the compromises of a mental separation between a board of education and residents. 　　Second, the problems among component local governments are recognized and the municipal affairs contents to be jointly implemented are clarified. In this case, it’ s applicable to a supervision administration under the original vertical complementation. 　　On the other hand, in many cases of joint implementation for educational administration, the gap between the philosophy of the board of education system and the present conditions against the elected education committee are pointed out. If it’ s encouraged a joint implementation of educational administration, a theoretical explanation for the indication is required.

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　　The purpose of this paper is to clarify the effect of the appointment of superintendents by local chief executives in institutional transition, using analysis of aggregate data and case studies. I focus on prefectures and designated cities as the sample. 　　The following is the finding of this research. Firstly, in most cases, the local chief executive decides to transit to the new board of education system depending on the following factors; their low share of the vote at the latest election, and also superintendents’ prior career being administrative officers. 　　Secondly, if the local chief executive wants to transit from the old board of education system to the new one, superintendents’ prior career will determine whether the mayor appoints the same person. In particular, in the case of the superintendents’ career as an administrative officer, the local chief executive will tend to appoint another person as superintendent. These appointments affect continuity of educational administration.

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　　The purposes of this paper are to examine drafts of High School Establishment Standard enacted in January 1948 and to make clear how the high-label class size standard in the Standard had been established and how the measures for meeting the standard had been designed. This paper clarifies two points. First, the class size standard was designed by the Secondary School Standards Committee against Monta L. Osborne (Civil Information and Education Section, CIE) at the early stage of the process for making the Standard. The Ministry of Education carried on drafting it and steadfastly maintained the class size standard while conceding on establishment, correction, or deletion of the other provisions. 　　Second, the Committee had suggested a two-level standard system (the permanent standard and tentative standard). This two-level standard system underscored the tentative standard as the minimum standard and requested schools meeting the tentative standard that they aim to meet the permanent standard. However, the Ministry deleted all provisions about the system. This drafting process seems to have brought about the emasculation of the permanent standard.

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　　Chicago’ s mayoral control has been criticized for taking away democracy from educational administration. The mayor has promoted school closures and privatization rapidly with objectives that are far away from children’ s development, such as urban renewal. Under this situation, residents in Bronzeville began developing“Community Educational Plan”which draws a picture of what the school education should be through discussing the future of children and their community. This movement seems to pursue the resident autonomy in educational administration autonomously. It’ s important to examine this movement for the purpose of rethinking the way that the democracy or resident autonomy in educational administration should be. This article analyzes the process of making and contents of this plan and reveals its features and significances. Through this analysis, this article reexamines the principle of the local residents’ autonomy in educational administration. This article concludes with implications that 1) this case seems to prove the necessity of establishing schools rooted in the community by the local residents’ autonomy, 2) residents were able to consider a long-term outlook of children’ s development as responsible individuals by community-level resident autonomy, and 3) it’ s essential to propose what the appropriate urban renewal should be from the perspective of children’ s development.

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　　This article clarifies the governance reform of public education in New Orleans from the 1990s and the idea of what educational administration ought to be in market-based school governance. First, this article shows that the purpose of governance reform of education in New Orleans is to secure the quality and the achievement of education, and that the new governance of education is composed of the following three systems: the state educational accountability system, charter schools, and the board of education. Second, this article examines New Orleans’ educational network model and the present structure of charter school governance. It is suggested that the role of school districts is diminished just to assure educational accountability and to monitor the performance of charter schools, while promoting decentralization of educational administration and diversification of education providers. Third, this article examines the present educational administration and suggests the portfolio management model as a theoretical basis of the new governance of education, which seeks to solve educational problems through market theory. In conclusion, it is suggested that the governance reform of education in New Orleans weakened local control of education while justifying performance management of education, which promotes competition among schools and privatization of public education.

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