District of Columbia School Superintendent Franklin L. Smith faces overwhelming challenges, including student shootings, dilapidated facilities, undersupplied classrooms, and low student achievement. Franklin's biggest problem is a city budget crisis stemming from overspending, poor management, and bureaucratic incompetencies. Smith has pared his…

Award-winning Colorado Springs Superintendent Trevor Burnley has dedicated his energies to the "kid business"; he recently adopted his two young grandchildren and works diligently to keep schoolchildren away from the eight-ball. Faced with a slashed budget, he had to cut staff and freeze salaries, earning teachers' resentment. He…

Events leading to Great Britain's substantial and differential cuts in student numbers and recurrent grants to universities are chronicled and related to the responses of nine universities. The universities' lack of preparation for the cuts and policy implications are discussed. (Author/MSE)

Retrenchment controversies as they influenced school policy and as they related to changes in educational politics in Detroit (Michigan) from 1929 to 1935 are examined. Investigated are questions such as, How was massive retrenchment undertaken?, What political alignments arose over the retrenchment issue?, and What were the long term…

Within the context of a discussion of the development of adult education programs in community colleges, this paper focuses on the noncredit programming in the San Francisco Community College District (SFCCD) and the threats to those activities posed by recent funding reductions. First, the paper reviews the long history of adult education,…

Evaluation of academic programs in higher education institutions has existed in the United States since 1640. In the succeeding 34 decades, demands for program review and accountability have led to the present development of academic program evaluation as a primary means to revise, curtail, or eliminate degree programs. (Author/MSE)

Educational developments since 1945 are described, particularly those influencing the present climate of adversity, and ways these historical forces have altered the complexion of university governance are explored. Six policies are offered for promoting institutional renewal in Canada through the regeneration of the teaching/research force.…

Despite contrary predictions, men have retained their near-monopoly of top positions in educational administration and have even replaced women where they had gained a toehold, as in elementary principalships. The pattern in education follows that in many complex white-collar organizations; horizontal and vertical segregation of male and female…

The development of academic tenure in American higher education is reviewed, based on a study by the College and University Personnel Association. The role of academic tenure as a general concept in the development of the professoriate and in the shaping of major portions of educational policy and practice is explored. (MLW)

Findings of a study that explored how California school reforms are initiated and revised and how differences between the judicial and legislative areas affect policymaking are presented in this document. Two themes--financial reform and retrenchment--are examined at two levels: as a case study about the politics of school finance reform and also…

This paper presents a historical perspective on the growth of the Seattle Community College District (SCCD) from 1967 to 1980 and the period of retrenchment from 1981 to the present. First. the paper reviews the formation of the SCCD, its organizational structure, goals and objectives, and mission. Next, demographic data are presented to…

A discussion of the economics of higher education begins with an outline of the history of higher education, and a profile of American postsecondary institutions in the recent past and the present. An analysis of the outlook for enrollments follows. Data are given on enrollment trends since 1951, according to sector (public versus private),…

The decline of the American railroad is explored to gain a better understanding of the nature and consequences of decline, as well as to assess implications for higher education. The following issues are addressed: changes that occurred in the railroad's environment between the early twentieth century and the present; the kind of adaptation that…

Reflects on the heady past and dubious future of outdoor education in Ontario. Calls for reconceptualizing the field of outdoor education, taking down the terminological fence created by the word "outdoor," focusing on the holistic aspects of outdoor education, and uniting with like-minded souls in education as a whole, to survive into…

The history of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (CFAT) is traced. Three eras are described: 1905 to 1930, a period of initial creativity and influence; 1930 to 1966, a period of gradual decline, leading eventually to loss of independence and virtual extinction; and 1966 to 1979, a period of revitalization. Originally, CFAT…