This paper suggests that many large organizations seek technological solutions to compensate for reduced manpower and funding resources. One such organization, the U.S. Army, has compensated for resource reductions by focusing on integrating advanced technologies into the functional areas of training, acquisition, and test and evaluation. While…

This collection of papers presented at a 1996 conference on children's mental health focuses on program evaluation efforts within states and systems of care. Individual papers have the following titles and authors: (1) "An Overview of State Public Mental Health Programs for Children with a Serious Emotional Disturbance" (Pamela C. Roddy); (2) "A…

This study investigated the kinds of training conducted in Japanese companies and the degree to which instructional systems design (ISD) is implemented. A random sample of 12 Japanese companies in the banking, automobile manufacturing, electrical machinery, wholesale stores, insurance and securities, and transportation industries were surveyed; a…

An effective educational reform plan creates a compelling vision, develops a new policy environment conducive to change, and lays out strategies for involving educators, parents, business people, and community members in implementation. Traditional educational policy is biased toward the status quo, favors yearly, incremental policy-making,…

Changes already underway in the U.S. economy have made it increasingly important for students to acquire symbolic-analytic skills and technical skills. Of all the available options for improving the education of vocational industrial teachers to help them prepare students for work in the 21st century, the most reasonable alternative appears to be…

The role of governments in the operation of education research and development systems is under critical scrutiny throughout the developed world. The introductory chapter presents the main themes of a seminar held in 1992 and outlines challenges for further work. The next 10 chapters focus on education research and development issues: (1)…

Despite current interest with the concept of the "New American School" model discussed in "America 2000," school systems continue to approach educational reform and restructuring by tinkering with key organizational components in isolation. The total school organization requires assessment and profiling to determine which key components are drags…

Designed to improve the long-term operational efficiency of the Montgomery County, Maryland, Public Schools (MCPS) payroll system, this study begins with an executive summary, including a set of recommendations and a chapter-by-chapter synopsis. Following an introduction to the study and a general description of the payroll system in chapters 1…

This digest describes brief family consultation, a short-term strategy that enlists the home and school in an attempt to solve childhood behavior problems. Five criteria are given for assessing the functional status of a family: (1) parental resources; (2) chronicity; (3) communication between family members; (4) parental authority; and (5)…

This paper focuses on the challenge raised by the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic regarding the need to improve the effectiveness of health communication or education campaigns. The paper discusses the behaviors underlying health information processing and particularly what is called the "knowledge but not behavior-change…

The effective implementation of school redesign, based on a social systems approach, is discussed in this paper. A basic assumption is that the interdependence of system elements has implications for a complex change process. Seven barriers to redesign and five critical issues for successful redesign strategy are presented. Seven linear steps for…

This master's thesis is intended to show that the computer, as an aesthetic medium, will create the social conditions whereby the population will be able to develop the aesthetic bridge of self-actualization, and that the increased numbers of people involved with their own personal psychological development and growth will create social conditions…

Those interested in textbook research, theory, and practice need to identify the independent or context variables that influence the making of a textbook--the intervening variables that come into play as textbooks are conceived, developed, and designed--and to show how these impact on the textbook, or dependent variable. To begin, critics and…

Effective schools are those that successfully impart basic computation and communication skills plus some knowledge of the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. School effectiveness should be measured by looking at the total learning environment and outcomes for all students. This environment consists of three identifiable aspects--ideology,…

Many criticize the educational system, arguing that it suppresses individual creativity. This paper proposes an alternative instructional design which is intended to be used by educators in planning for creative learning and assessing it in the classroom. It is based on the notion that everyone has the potential to be creative and that any process…