Educational centers serve a number of purposes. Foremost, they are a more cost-effective way of meeting increased student demand than building costly comprehensive full-service campuses. Educational centers also promote shared facility use and intersegmental collaboration, which enables higher education systems to use resources more efficiently.…

The number of objectives that formal education is expected to achieve has grown incredibly over the years. The task of educating has become so complex that the problems are hardly comprehensible. As with other complex problems, people tend to turn in frustration to simplistic solutions. When educational variables are studied, unfortunately, no…

Prompted by the accelerating growth in the use of education service agencies (ESAs) to improve state systems of education, this discussion of major policy issues and a proposed research agenda is addressed to policy planners at the state or local levels and to policy and research communities. The purpose of the paper is to raise and clarify issues…

Describes an eight-year study in curriculum development at the University of Chicago, involving 30 school systems and featuring summer workshops in curriculum planning and evaluation. Shows how the experience validates observations made by Joseph Schwab in "The Practical 4: Something for Curriculum Professors to Do" (Curriculum Inquiry…

Improved strategies for sharing resources are absolutely essential to the survival of small schools. Although not all, or even a major portion, of school programs should be provided by a cooperative delivery system, a discerning superintendent and board will mobilize every resource available to them in conducting their educational programs.…

Education Service Centers do now or can constitute a significant delivery vehicle to help solve one of the stickiest issues facing the Texas Legislature--the equalization of educational opportunity. Remoteness, size of school districts, and taxable valuation all impact the individual district's ability to provide equal educational opportunity.…

This paper presents an overview of the rationale of curriculum materials centers in academic libraries from their initial formation to their present status and envisions possible future roles. Terminology current in the field is defined, and materials centers are discussed in terms of curriculum materials centers and curriculum materials…

Five articles about education service agencies (ESAs) serving rural schools yield five insights. Many rural systems owe their existence to ESA support. ESAs provide critical technology support. States should encourage school district collaboration. Inclusion of postsecondary institutional representatives in ESAs is an important step towards a…

As a result of a series of miniconferences held throughout the United States on implementing career education in grades K-12, four implementation issues were identified and summarized in this monograph. (Other issues are treated in separate publications.) The issues which the K-12 educators identified as very important were the following: (1) the…

Paints a nostalgic picture of one-room schools, then identifies some of the current problems in rural school and cites some innovative solutions. Topics include problems and advantages of consolidation, regional services, sharing between districts, and the potential of telecommunications and other educational technology. (JHZ)

Focusing on the promotion of reform and knowledge use in school districts, this paper reports on data from a study investigating assistance and enforcement strategies adopted by three types of regional educational service agencies. Assistance in this context means provision of legal or program knowledge needed to operate successful programs.…

The proposed organizational and activity structure for an Educational Technology Center would provide opportunities for educational research, hardware/software/courseware services, and training programs to prepare professionals in the field. Advances in industrial, communications, and educational technologies necessitate the implementation of an…

Opportunities abound for educational service agencies (ESAs) to assist rural schools districts with implementing the No Child Left Behind Act. Strategies that ESAs could pursue are presented for critical issues in the areas of school-community relationships, school roles in rural development, funding, standard setting, school size, facility…

Offers guidelines for administering college computing services, including recommendations for setting up the administrative structure, staffing, budgeting, defining the job functions of responsible administrators, involving faculty, managing equipment and services, coordinating computing needs, and preparing for the future. (GFW)

Leadership in new systems of health care and in the integration of the activities of the various health professionals must come from the health professional schools, particularly academic health-sciences centers. Ways in which these centers can be more effective in developing this leadership and cooperation, and related concerns are discussed.…