The paper examines issues in the delivery of public services in rural areas. The importance of access to urban areas in identifying differences in rural delivery problems is emphasized. It is no longer accurate to equate "rural" with agriculture and farming, drawing a distinction between those who have easy access to an urban area and those who…

When local school board members in New York City assumed office on 31 local school boards in 1969, this should have resulted in more responsive local boards with sufficient power to control local policy; but this was not the actual result. Specific examination of the decentralization bill, the politics of the election, and the election procedures…

The current (1972) status of cable television (CATV) in Massachusetts is reviewed in this guide. The tone of the guide is oriented toward more citizen participation and public access to CATV operations throughout the state. The legal and technical CATV considerations are briefly discussed. Short illustrated chapters on the possibilities of local…

Examines change in attitude toward community and descriptions of neighborhood environments of 217 residents of rural host community for a nuclear power plant. Finds negative attitude change and less positive descriptions of neighborhoods. Discusses implications for community psychology and preventive intervention. (LFL)

Vermont's Equal Educational Opportunity Act of 1997 (Act 60) has attracted attention because of its funding and quality components, and the highly publicized responses to its implementation. A key feature is its "recapture" provision in which property-wealthy towns contribute to a state educational fund that helps support education in…

A principal who survived only two years in a new school candidly explains the reason for his firing: he neglected to take into account how different his new school, school system, and community were from those he had left. (JM)

Outlines approaches for student evaluation in service learning projects. Maintains that most service learning project participants' goals fall into three broad areas: civic development, academic achievement, and personal or social development. Assessment in these areas can be accomplished through tabulation of service hours, student journals, and…

Discussion of the need to advocate for library services to young people focuses on the role of school and public libraries in children's lives from birth through age 5 and from 10 through 14. Brain development, family intervention, children's attitudes and self-expectations, and state and local elements are discussed. (LRW)

Reversing two decades of school-community turmoil, Valley View--a small, rural community in northeastern Vermont--approved a bond issue for school construction. This case study uses organizational and systems theory to examine structural, political, symbolic, and human resource influences on changing community attitudes. Contains 19 references.…

Political factors that school superintendents perceive as related to decision making were studied using a random sample of 172 superintendents from 11 southeastern states. The results show that the greatest political influences were local and state sources within the organizational structure of the school districts. (SLD)

Voters in five states approved referenda making English their official language. The vote is used to assess racial, ethnic, economic, political, and cultural hypotheses. The racial and cultural hypotheses are not validated; the ethnic and class ones are partially supported; and the political hypothesis offers the most compelling explanation. (26…

The involvement of parents in the community school board elections in New York City in May 1989 was to be closely watched. Puerto Rican and other minority parents must seize the opportunity provided by the elections as a first step toward determining the educational agenda for their children. (SLD)

Changes in national demographics have altered how we define community. The community may be a geographic area of home life, a place for coming together voluntarily, or an association of people with similar interests and values. New communities must develop their own infrastructures and capacities for sustaining themselves. (SLD)

Although the plight of cities seems nearly hopeless, three new-style big city mayors have emerged to try ideas deserving study by other cities. Edward Rendell of Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), John Norquist of Milwaukee (Wisconsin), and Stephen Goldsmith of Indianapolis (Indiana) are demonstrating that U.S. cities can be made to work. (SLD)

Globalizing trends--underscored by neoliberalism, privatization and imperial legacies--are changing the nature and purpose of education across the world. "With these rules of the capitalist game," a Colombian student argues, "the public university in Latin America has been played." Manifestations of these trends, however, vary…