For many reasons, failure in education reform is rarely admitted. Even though it is incredibly hard work to try and improve the enormous and diverse American education system, because there are political consequences of admitting that a particular effort did not live up to its promises and pressure from philanthropic funders to show success, unsuccessful efforts are often swept under the rug or papered over with public relations efforts that avoid wrestling with the tough realities of educational improvement. This doesn’t help anyone. As any educator will tell you, failure is an essential part of learning. Insofar as education reform needs to be a learning movement itself, it has to be able to admit where it has failed and learn from it. Failure Up-Close engages a select group of scholars from across the ideological spectrum to examine particular education reform efforts of recent years that have not succeeded and offer lessons for school and system improvement that can be learned from them. Rather than view failure as negative, this volume looks at failure as an opportunity to learn and grow. In fact, the editors endeavored to find authors that would analyze reforms for which they had some fundamental sympathy. The goal is not to bash particular efforts or castigate their supporters but rather to help those supporters understand how to do what they do better, and ultimately, do better for children.

Democracy, sustainability and social justice: the leading role that higher education must play in maintaining these three principles This publication, Higher education leadership for democracy, sustainability and social justice, arises from the global forum that the Council of Europe, the International Consortium for Higher Education, Civic Responsibility and Democracy, the Organization of American States and the International Association of Universities organised at Dublin City University in June 2022. It also arises from the challenges of Covid-19, which both highlighted and contributed to the fragility of democracy, with the increasing erosion of democratic participation, the deepening of extreme inequities, the strengthening of identity and nationalistic politics and the promotion of populist anti-intellectualism, involving attacks on science and knowledge itself. In this book, authors from Europe, the United States and Latin America argue that democracy, sustainability and social justice are inextricably linked, and that we can impact none of them unless higher education plays an important role in identifying the issues and helping society devise a viable and robust response. The book argues that higher education must do more than develop and disseminate knowledge and understanding. Higher education must influence the way individuals and societies behave. Higher education must lead. The importance of this leadership is illustrated by the inclusion of the Dublin Global Forum in the programme of the Irish Presidency of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and will be borne out by the positions and actions of the higher education community.

This is an open access book. The Mongolian National University of Education has successfully organized the "Quality Assurance in higher education" International Conference for 16 consecutive years since 2016. The scope of this conference grows year to year, increasing in quality and participants. Furthermore, in 2018, the conference website was launched (www.qahe.msue.edu.mn) and started partnering with sponsor organizations. A total of 33 papers will be discussed at the plenary and three sessions of this conference named "Education Quality Policy and Implementation," "Innovation of Teaching and Learning Technology and Contemporary Trends," and "Teaching and Learning Technology Implementations and Outcomes." There are five poster presentations. The research volume on high education quality and its relevant disciplines has increased. We hope that the conference will contribute experiences and knowledge about policymaking and research worldwide.