Research on decision making in pregnant adolescents is in its infancy. Most has focused on correlates of the various pregnancy outcomes such as abortion, delivery, parenting one's child, or relinquishing the child for adoption. There is a need to investigate the process of decision making with pregnant adolescents in light of a theory of decision…

In 1974, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges initiated a special project to promote, in courts throughout the country, periodic review of the status of all children in foster care. This paper explains the development of these judicial review systems, describes several alternative review mechanisms, and discusses key issues…

This article presents a study of a key indicator of the validity of the adoptive screening process--the level of agreement among caseworkers in their decision to accept or reject applicants. Ti was found that worker agreement is not as high as desirable. (Author/BW)

Development, field trial, and dissemination are three vital stages that precede the general adoption of an educational innovation. Development should include a clear definition of the innovation, the identification of its essential elements, and a description of its operational characteristics. Field testing should incorporate a provision for…

A model of innovation adoption process, the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM), has been developed from empirical evidence. The CBAM depicts innovation adoption in educational institutions as a developmental process in which each user of the innovation demonstrates successively higher qualities of use of the innovation. The CBAM also depicts…

A critical task facing educators is that of uniting those schools that have need of a successful solution to a specific problem with those schools that already have produced such a solution. This guide suggests how practitioners might pursue the problem of sharing educational success in their State. Included are a brief summary of how…

This handbook consists of an overview of planning along with identification of the logical steps or operations in the planning process. Each aspect of planning considered here--situation analysis, beliefs, mission, continuing objectives, assessment of continuing objectives, specific objectives (instructional), priorities, strategies…

Discusses management by objectives in the public sector and its relationship to contingency management. (Available from Public Personnel Management, Room 240, 1313 East 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637; $15.00 annually, $3.00 single copy.) (IRT)

Argues for the acceptance of the metric system in the United States. (JMB)

A team of change agents initiated an intensive organizational development (OD) program in a nonacademic, service department of a midwestern university. Concluding comments include exploration of the feasibility of substantive OD change in short-term programs, and the possibility of nonlinear relations between OD outcomes and time investments. For…

Describes an adoption program, aggressively carried out, which not only achieved its goal of reducing the number of children in longterm foster care but had beneficial effects on other services by the agency. (MS)

Argues that the adoption worker can play a significant role in helping couples understand and surmount (prior to adoption) the trauma normal to infertility. (MS)

The fatal weaknesses of school innovations develop in the early stages of implementation. The authors present guidelines and suggestions for educators who wish to implement and maintain innovative programs. (Author/IRT)

Although the number of nonrelative adoptions is decreasing, stepparent adoptions are not. These adoptions are viewed as nonproblematic family business separate from the general adoption picture. This article examines demographic data in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, from 55 stepparent adoptions concerning stepparent adopters, birth parents, and…

Reviews the controversy concerning open versus closed adoption in terms of the consequences for the biological parents, adoptive parents, and adopted child. Arguments are caught up in theoretical dialectics and cannot be resolved without longitudinal research. Concludes with suggestions regarding clinical practice in adoption pending further…