Roger L. Geiger, Professor at the Center for the Study of Higher Education, The Pennsylvania State University, PA, United States. Email: rlg9@psu.edu Address: 400 Rackley Building University Park, PA 16802, United States.

Donald E. Heller, Director at the Center for the Study of Higher Education, The Pennsylvania State University, PA, United States. Email: dheller@psu.edu Address: 400 Rackley Building University Park, PA 16802, United States.                                                                                   

Developments in the financing of American higher education are viewed through the lens of macro-trends since 1990 in the era of privatization. For institutions in both sectors, private and public, privatization has meant increased exposure to market forces. Data on changes during this period are presented.

The basic trends in enrollments, revenues and expenditures in institutions of higher education are described. The steady growth in real tuition prices has shifted the financing of higher education from state support to students and their families. This trend would not have been possible without the substantial growth in student financial aid, especially federal student loans. The system of student financial aid is now fundamental to the financing of higher education in the United States. However, its impact and utilization has been different in the private, non-profit sector, in the public sector, and in the private, for-profit sector. In both public and private colleges and universities, expenditures on academic and institutional support outpaced spending on instruction. The authors describe the pressure for ever-more spending among the country’s wealthiest universities, enlargement of the market for selective institutions, and rise of the for-profit sector of higher education. They argue that privatization has assumed quite different dynamics in funding and shaping academic research.

The impact of the current economic downturn on the public and private sectors of higher education is discussed. 

Irina Grunicheva, research fellow at the Center of Socioeconomic Development of Schools, Institute of Educational Studies, National Research University — Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: igrunicheva@hse.ru Address: 20 Myasnitskaya St., 101000, Moscow, Russian Federation.

Marina Pinskaya,Ped.D., leading researcher at the Center of Socioeconomic Development of Schools, Institute of Educational Studies, National Research University — Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: m-pinskaya@yandex.ru Address: 20 Myasnitskaya St., 101000, Moscow, Russian Federation.

Sergey Kosaretsky, Psy.D., Director of the Center of Socioeconomic Development of Schools, Institute of Educational Studies, National Research University — Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: skosaretski@hse.ru Address: 20 Myasnitskaya St., 101000, Moscow, Russian Federation.

The article describes the major approaches to and solutions for the problem of the developing segment of schools working in a challenging social context and demonstrating low performance.

Strategies of increasing work efficiency and improving educational results in schools have become part of national educational policies in many countries. The underlying concept of these strategies is the recognition of the close relation between low socioeconomic status of student families and low teaching results of schools. As a rule, educational policies include measures to identify the risk segments and to provide timely interventions so as to avoid acute or chronic inefficiency. In some rare, extremely difficult cases, education management authorities resort to more drastic measures, from change of management and part of the teaching staff to reorganization of the whole educational institution.

Modern support programs for low-performing schools around the world are based on consistent and large-scale launching of financial, staff, organizational and other mechanisms designed to enhance qualification and stimulate professional growth of teachers, to expand the culture of collaboration, co-research and distribution of effective practices among teachers, to allocate leadership roles in school management, to develop partner relations between principals of the highest and the lowest performing schools, and to implement the efficient school model largely in practice.

The international experience of research and practical interventions into this field may be useful for Russian education, especially now when support of low-performing schools is on the agenda of Russian educational policy. 

Grigory Andrushchak, Ph.D. in Economics, Head of the Laboratory for Analysis and Modeling of Institutional Dynamics, National Research University — Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: gandroushchak@hse.ru 

Timur Natkhov, Ph.D. in Economics, research fellow at the Laboratory for Applied Analysis of Institutions and Social Capital, National Research University — Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: timur.natkhov@gmail.com 

Social surveys among prospective students and their parents conducted before and after the United State Exam (USE) was introduced are used to assess the effects of the education reform of 2009 in Russia.

It appears that applicants and their families have changed strategies of choosing a university and of pre-entry training since the USE was made compulsory. Now, more families choose to apply to several institutions, and less only opt for one. Besides, as the USE is compulsory, more and more applicants attend pre-entry courses at school or prepare on their own rather than attending courses in higher education institutions. These results are consistent across different income and demographic status of families, regardless of the city.

Effects of the reform tend to be irregular. The most important changes in strategies of choosing a university and of pre-entry training have been found in lower income families. After the reform was started, children in these families began attending pre-entry training in more subjects and attempting to enter more than one university. As a result, they have been appraising their own knowledge of school program much higher and feeling much more confident while preparing for the USE. Thus, pre-training courses have boosted the chances of entering a university for children from low income families.

The conclusion is that applicants from lower income families benefit more than other applicants from the compulsory USE.

Irina Abankina, Ph.D. in Economics, Professor, Director of the Institute for Educational Studies, National Research University — Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: abankinaI@hse.ru 

Tatyana Abankina, Ph.D. in Economics, Director of the Center for Applied Economic Research, National Research University —Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: abankinaT@hse.ru 

Lyudmila Filatova, Ph.D. in Economics, leading researcher at the Center for Applied Economic Research, National Research University —Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: lmfilatova@hse.ru 

Elena Nikolayenko, research fellowat the Center for Applied Economic Research, National Research University —Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: enikolayenko@hse.ru 

As the higher education public funding principles have changed and differentiation among higher education institutions has grown, dynamics of public demand for higher education affected by population decline and decrease in families’ ability to pay should be researched as much as never before. The paper investigates the existing trends in public demand and how they influence financial security and restructuring processes in the Russian higher education system. The study enabled to reveal transformation of the professional education market, its transition from expansion to contraction. Nowadays, the professional education market is changing under the influence of multidirectional trends determined by factors external to education, such as population decline, decrease in effective demand, employer dissatisfaction with education quality, and lower student motivation to continue education.

In this context, the basic vector for development quite naturally involves structural optimization, merging educational institutions of different levels, diversification of funding sources, and change in higher education management system.

In the contraction phase of the market, an adequate restructuring policy can result in consistent structural transformation. However, neither experts nor the society have yet reached a compromise on these issues, which dooms the optimization course to protests and opposition from the professional community, parents and employers.

Yuliya Tyumeneva, Psy.D., senior researcher at the Center for Monitoring Educational Quality, National Research University — Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: jtiumeneva@hse.ru 

Tatyana Khavenson, junior researcher at the International Laboratory for Education Policy Analysis, National Research University — Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: tkhavenson@hse.ru 

The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) does have a clear advantage in that, apart from a direct cognitive appraisal of students, it enables to collect information on their teachers, including their education background, work experience and teaching practices. The first difference method was used to determine how teacher characteristics were correlated with student achievements and to overcome restrictions of TIMSS correlation design. In addition, effects of teacher characteristics were evaluated by the conventional regression analysis. The discovered correlations differed across subject areas, and the results of the first difference method differed from those of the conventional correlation analysis. In mathematics, the first difference method revealed negative relation between academic progress and rule-based tasks or collaborative learning, while tasks designed to develop meta-subject skills showed a positive effect on performance. In natural sciences, on the contrary, rule-based tasks showed positive relation, while tasks designed to develop meta-subject skills produced a negative effect or no effect at all. Unlike in mathematics, teacher experience also had a significant influence on student achievements in natural sciences.

Implementing the new methodological approach has allowed not only to determine relation between teacher characteristics and academic performance of students but also to identify characteristics typical of specific teacher categories, as, for example, those who work in elite schools or teach better-prepared students. This information may be used both in developing the educational policy and in designing future studies, especially experimental ones. 

Fyodor Kozyrev, D.Sc. in Pedagogy, Professor at the Russian Christian Humanities Academy, Director of the Institute of Religious Pedagogy, Russian Christian Humanities Academy, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation. Email: fedorkozyrev@yandex.ru
Address: 15 Fontanki Quay, Saint Petersburg, 191023, Russian Federation.

The paper includes description of the new ONYX testing technique allowing for standardized quantitative assessment of moral judgment abilities. The technique was developed by improving Lind’s standardized version of Kohlberg dilemma method (Moral Judgment Theory).
Testing results prove high efficiency of the ONYX technique in solving diagnostic tasks related to monitoring moral education at school. The tests have shown that the technique is surely efficient in the amount of information obtained per unit of time. The author argues that the method can be applied to perform standardized tests among school students of all ages, beginning as early as with the fifth grade and until graduation. The revealed dramatic difference in results across classes may serve an indirect proof of efficiency of teaching measures to accelerate moral development of children. From a methodical point of view, high differentiation of average indicators across high school classes allows to use the technique to assess effectiveness of educational programs, performance of teachers and collective achievements of individual classes and schools. The testing technique has also turned out to reveal latent abilities of students.
A comparison of data collected from different age groups has shown that the measured combined indicator of moral selectivity and coherence may serve a measure of moral development. This indicator has a statistically proven advantage over the competency index applied by foreign researchers. The ONYX technique includes additional analysis tools allowing for a detailed diagnosis of specific features of moral motivation.

Based on the materials of the seminar dedicated to V. Bolotov’s anniversary

Speakers:

Viktor Bolotov, Vice President of the Russian Academy of Education;

Andrey Yershov, Director of the Federal Institute of Educational Measurement;

Yaroslav Kuzminov, Rector of the National Research University — Higher School of Economics;

Dmitry Livanov, Minister of Education and Science of the Russian Federation;

Aleksey Mayorov, Deputy Prorector of the National Research University — Higher School of Economics;

Pyotr Polozhevets, Chief Editor of Uchitelskaya Gazeta;

Yefim Rachevsky, Director of Moscow High School ‘Tsaritsyno 548’;

Aleksandr Tatur, Head of the Moscow Center for Quality Assurance in Education;

Vladimir Filippov, Rector of the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia;

Isak Frumin, Director of Research and Development at the Institute of Educational Studies, National Research University — Higher School of Economics;

Valentin Shaulin, Head of Education Quality Control and Evaluation Department of Rosobrnadzor.                       

The speakers review how the Unified State Exam (USE) technology was developed and how the first team of developers was established. They also analyze stages and principles of holding the national testing experiment in regions of Russia and specify the factors of the project success. The experiment was aimed at creating a technology that could be applied in all regions with their specific conditions, a technology that would be trusted by most graduates and applicants, their parents, most universities and schools. Special consideration is given to misuse of the USE results, i.e. using them to create rankings of schools and educational systems in cities and federal subjects, to assess efficiency of governors, or to evaluate teachers).

The discussion reveals major advantages and benefits of the USE in comparison to the preceding graduate evaluation system. The speakers point to some errors committed during the project development and implementation and argue why so much time was required to develop and launch the project.

The top priority objectives of the USE development include improving examination materials, focusing more on the competency building approach, differentiating examinations in the Russian language and mathematics into basic and advanced levels, and providing information security.

The speakers underline the need to investigate the role and place of the USE in evaluating efficiency of teachers and educational institutions. Finally, they discuss the effects of introducing the USE as the key education reform and as a social project of the new Russia.

Based on the data obtained by the Institute for Statistical Studies and the Economics of Knowledge, National Research University — Higher School of Economics 

Olga Ozerova - Head of the Department for Statistics of Education, Institute for Statistical Studies and the Economics of Knowledge, National Research University — Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: oozerova@hse.ru
Address: 18 Myasnitskaya St., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation.

Irina Zabaturina - senior researcher at the Centre for Statistics and Monitoring of Education, Institute for Statistical Studies and the Economics of Knowledge, National Research University — Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: izabaturina@hse.ru
Address: 18 Myasnitskaya St., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation.

Vera Kuznetsova - senior researcher at the Centre for Statistics and Monitoring of Education, Institute for Statistical Studies and the Economics of Knowledge, National Research University — Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: vkouznetsova@hse.ru

Galina Kovaleva - senior expert at the Centre for Statistics and Monitoring of Education, Institute for Statistical Studies and the Economics of Knowledge, National Research University — Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: gkovaleva@hse.ru
Address: 18 Myasnitskaya St., Moscow, 101000, Russian Federation.

Education quality doesn’t depend on the process of teaching alone; it also depends on material and technical facilities of educational institutions. Bringing infrastructure of educational institutions in compliance with modern standards is one of the top priorities of Russian federal education policy. Results of a federal statistical observation study are used to describe the state of the material and technical base of educational institutions. The priority national project ‘Education’, the national education initiative ‘Our New School’, and regional general education modernization projects have enabled a significant renovation of the educational infrastructure. Educational institutions are now better equipped with state-of-the-art IT facilities providing a wide access to various educational resources.

The report includes statistics on the structural condition and amenities of buildings of preschool and general education (federal or municipal) institutions, on their equipment with computers, including those with Internet access, on provision of federal and municipal general schools with public catering networks, libraries and sports facilities.

The report also contains statistics on availability of dormitories, public catering networks, computers with Internet access, video projectors, interactive whiteboards, printers and scanners for students of vocational technical schools, colleges and universities. Statistics on the structural condition and amenities of college and university buildings is also given in the report.

Anna Sanina - Ph.D. in Sociology, Associate Professor at the Department of Public Administration, National Research University — Higher School of Economics — St. Petersburg, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation, Head of the Research and Study Group on the Economics and Sociology of Change. Email: anna.g.sanina@gmail.com  Address: 16 Soyuza Pechatnikov St., 190121, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation.

Ani Zakaryan - second-year Master’s degree student at the National Research University — Higher School of Economics — St. Petersburg, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation, intern researcher in the Research and Study Group on the Economics and Sociology of Change. Email: anizakaryan@gmail.com Address: 16 Soyuza Pechatnikov St., 190121, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation.

Oleg Obidovsky - second-year Master’s degree student at the National Research University — Higher School of Economics — St. Petersburg, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation, intern researcher in the Research and Study Group on the Economics and Sociology of Change. Email: oleg_obidovskiy@mail.ru  Address: 16 Soyuza Pechatnikov St., 190121, Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation.

The authors analyze results of an empiric study of state identity in graduates from Saint Petersburg universities. They explain why the modern ‘model’ of a graduate doesn’t contribute to formation of state identity, the key components of which (cognitive, emotional and evaluative, normative-value, and behavioral) are largely disintegrated. The efforts made to increase young people’s knowledge of the state and to develop their idea of what is due and right don’t actually change their behavior towards the state, while demonstration of a certain level of knowledge is neutralized by distrust to the existing political realities, which results in treating the state much as an external enemy.

Today, higher education is still focused on producing qualified professionals demanded in the labor market, but not citizens who would develop and support the state they live and work in. The function of developing civic identity is almost entirely restricted to secondary schools and disappears as soon as children leave them. However, state and citizenship are absolutely valuable for young people today, although they don’t always realize it. Moreover, an absolute value is conveyed by their own state, as it provides a perception of community which, on the one hand, sets very strict limits of the difference between ‘us and them’, while, on the other hand, accepting other identities and granting necessary freedom to an individual. Nevertheless, these normative-value attitudes are not supported by cognitive or behavioral ones.

Sergey Druzhilov, Psy.D., Professor at the Automatic Electric Drive Department, Siberian State Industrial University, Novokuznetsk, Russian Federation. Email: druzhilov@mail.ru Address: 42 Kirova St., Novokuznetsk, 654007, Kemerovo Oblast, Russian Federation.

The author describes the state of university and academic intelligentsia in the first ten years after the Russian Revolution of 1917. The intellectual stratum of the society became an object of the Red Terror. The bitter state of higher school was aggravated by devastation of the country. The most tragic consequences were felt after the cut-down on financing of universities, which resulted in a dramatic tightening in financial conditions of teachers. Transition to NEP (New Economic Policy) prevented the death of Russian higher education, which had loomed so inevitable by the late 1920 due to an extremely difficult economic situation in the country. Universities started to receive more and more financing: the real wage of teachers increased; institutions resumed business trips abroad and purchase of equipment, Russian and foreign science books.

However, as the economy was leaving the war communism behind, any opposition sentiment was ruthlessly suppressed. Beginning with the 1920s, the political leaders saw their top priority goal in obtaining loyalty of the intelligentsia. The author describes the dramatic events surrounding the expulsion of dissident intellectuals (the repressive operation the national history refers to as the “philosophers’ ships”). He also analyzes the number of university teachers and students on the eve of industrialization.

The period of relative stability in higher education lasted until 1926 and provided the basis for subsequent development of higher education in Russia. 

Sergey Golunov, D.Sc. in Political Science, Professor at the Chair of International Relationships and Regional Studies of Foreign Countries, Volgograd State University, Volgograd, Russian Federation, award winner in Pinsky Awards Education Research Competition (2011). Email: sgolunov@mail.ru
Address: 100 Universitetsky Ave., Volgograd, 400062, Russian Federation.

A structuralist discourse analysis is used to analyze strengths and weaknesses of patriotic education in terms of its potential to solve urgent problems of Russian development. Evolution of governmental policies in patriotic education in the 1990s—2000s is described. The paper defines the scope of problems given top priority in modern Russian patriotic education discourse and specified the issues that are underestimated.

Some disturbing trends are prevalent in the patriotic education discourse today: too little focus on developing honesty and fidelity to one’s principles (including intolerance towards corruption) as socially important qualities of a successful person; disability to convincingly discriminate between patriotic education and aggressive nationalism; and intolerance towards those who express ‘insufficiently patriotic’ views on Russia’s past and present. A similarly pressing problem is posed by the soaring degradation of the national education system and by the threat of further deterioration of moral authority of teachers and officials acting as agents of patriotism.

The author proposes to change the focus of patriotic education and its place in the system of national pedagogic priorities. Results of this analysis may be used as a framework to conceptualize the strengths and possible weaknesses of patriotic education in order to develop recommendations on its realization. The results may also serve a basis for further discussions on developing conceptual and practical approaches towards patriotic education in modern Russia. 

Aleksey Mayorov, D.Sc. in Pedagogy, Deputy Prorector of the National Research University — Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: anmayorov@hse.ru 

The author uses the fundamental management theory to analyze how the model of separation of powers is realized in education, and how it can be improved in the future. The period from 2004, when an administrative reform was launched and when the united Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation was formed, until the spring of 2012, when there was a change of government, witnessed a shift in powers from the legislative to the executive branch and from regional to federal authorities. 

Such a significant shift in educational powers from regional to federal authorities violates the very essence of federalism where powers should be separated in order to find appropriate solutions for each specific region and situation. Educational policy has been deregionalized lately, making it too hard for the center to cope with its powers. As a result, the center suggests standard solutions when they are totally inappropriate. Thus, the shift in powers and its practical effects have produced two essential educational phenomena: the low level of trust between federal and regional authorities, and the low independence of regional authorities. Challenges and risks of centralization of powers are investigated through specific examples of management practices. 

The author analyzes the solutions to centralization of powers proposed by different authorities and offers solutions of his own. He also argues that we need to find and trigger the mechanisms of promoting the feedback between people and regional and municipal authorities. 

Elena Penskaja, D.Sc. in Philology, Dean of the Faculty of Philology, Head of the Literature Department, National Research University — Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russian Federation. Email: e.penskaya@hse.ru 

The paper reviews the methods used to describe historical processes in education and analyzes examples of historical material falsification.

The lack of qualitative studies in history of Russian education is a great hindrance to educational reforms. The author identifies and describes the key approaches to analyze the history of Russian education that are largely based on modernization processes: the hermeneutic approach, the anthropological pass-through approach, and the conventionally impressionist approach. The prevailing trends in research of the history of Russian education are analyzed using the dilogy on the life journey of Yuliya Fausek (née Andrusova), where all the abovementioned approaches are used to represent the same historical material from different perspectives.

The author describes cultural and historical background for the adoption of two European preschool education philosophies, Froebel’s and Montessori’s, in the early 19th century in Russia, and specifies their fundamental principles that formed the basis for ideological antagonism among Russian adherents. She also investigates biographical prerequisites for Yuliya Fausek’s commitment to Montessori’s theory and describes the tragic effects of her activities on disseminating teaching policies inconsistent with the communist ideology.

By analyzing the publishing and research practices applied in the book, the author describes typical perversions of facts. The technique of collaging archival data to reproduce historical experience may easily be turned into manipulation of history presented to reader as a trustful source. Basic navigation tools are offered to facilitate browsing through the products that fill the market of history and education today.