The study reported in this paper examined the structure and function of Chinese opera (also known as Peking opera) as an effective communication medium of social control and change in China, a land populated by 800 million people and nourished by a 5,000-year-old civilization. The study followed structural-functional analysis, content analysis,…

We are, for the second time in a hundred years, experiencing a revolution in the politics of education. In the 1890s municipal reform wrested control of urban school systems from city political machines and their neighborhood subunits. Since then the structure of school government has rested on two types of legitimacy. These are a belief in…

It is difficult to develop a measure of diversity in broadcast programing, and it is equally difficult to measure the value of a broadcast to its viewer. Similarly, attempts to measure viewer preference functions have resulted in categorizations so vague as to be meaningless. In the face of such ambiguity, attempts by the Federal Communications…

The first of these speeches, "The Trustee: An Endangered Species," recounts current challenges facing community college trusteeship, including enrollment ceilings, faculty unionism, state super-boards, and financial disclosure laws. The traditional role of the trustee was not designed to meet these and other current threats to the community…

Control of mass communication information has become a matter of increasing concern in scholarly circles. The emphasis by UNESCO in recent years on national communication policies is related to this concern. One important justification offered for focusing attention on communication policies has been their impact on development efforts. Certain…

The movement toward school decentralization in Chicago is best described as a strategy of incrementalism. It has proceeded along separate fronts--administrative decentralization, district and school advisory councils, and a special experimental district. This paper describes the extent to which these developments have progressed. It also seeks to…

The paper draws on findings from three case studies on the changing role of Local Education Authorities (LEAs) in England and explores the degree of LEA effectiveness, their contribution to school improvement, and the nature of their leadership. The context for the study is one in which, over the years, the powers and responsibilities of LEAs have…

An examination of the relevant literature reveals that "policy" means different things to different people. Among the concepts that emerge when these meanings are reviewed are that policies are intentional, decision-based, goal-oriented, and conditional; they lead to results, balance facts and values, and allocate resources; and they…

In the United States, the Bill of Rights is most often thought of as the charter that establishes individual rights in categories such as "freedom of expression" and "rights of the accused." In this essay it is argued that this conception of the Bill of Rights, while perhaps acceptable for constitutional law, does not provide…

State departments of education, administrators, educational testing systems, and the media are demanding uniformity of instructional units and of performance objectives for community college English courses. Limited funds and the desire to promote a favorable public image are factors encouraging standardization of instruction. Presently, policy…

According to popular analysis, parental objections to busing are generated by a perceived "loss of control" over the education of their children. It is the thesis of this essay that this loss of control began well before the current dispute over busing. It is helpful to view the process of parental political disenfranchisement as one that has…

Previous and present relationships between colleges and their communities are examined to determine the various forms of intervention, both social and economic, that will shape this relationship in the future. Four forms of community intervention are identified. (1) By its participation in college programs and services, the community is the…

System-wide school decentralization is now implemented both in New York City and in Detroit. It is important, therefore, to inquire into alternative explanations of the origins of the school decentralization movement with a view to constructing models of school organizational behavior and change which may have utility either to other school…

"Politics" is used in a broad sense to refer to the social, economic, political, and civil forces that impinge on the publicly financed school system. These forces are generated both from outside and inside the educational system. It is the author's view that the big cities and the school systems of most of these cities are in just enough trouble…

The authors identified those Community School Districts in New York City that have a minority population of at least 60 percent and also contain a non-Hispanic white residential enclave. By studying the election results for these school districts, the authors tested the hypothesis that non-Hispanic white middle-class voters had a disproportionate…