This paper addresses the need for a strategic focus on the improvement of the principalship. Whatever technical changes are made in a school district's formal system for selecting, training, appraising, compensating, and certifying principals, there are predictable consequences for the political and cultural dimensions of that district (that is,…

This report describes the fiscal effects of the Chapter 2, Education Consolidation and Improvement Act (ECIA) block grant on the country's largest districts and cities. Although several distinct characteristics are examined, special attention is focused on the differential funding patterns under the block grant in the largest districts that…

In the absence of a planning strategy, politics and expediency will take over an educational innovation and lead it astray. Formal planning is in many ways a controlling device, but it is also a potential enabling device through which participants can affect their futures. One academic year was spent studying three suburban or rural schools'…

This paper examines the status of educational administration (the way the public school systems are configured and managed) in Australia and New Zealand. To indicate the extent and nature of the administrative changes taking place in Australian education, three cameos are considered: New South Wales, Victoria, and the Commonwealth. The three case…

Intended to act as a general introduction for high school and college students, this book presents an annotated bibliography of books, periodical articles, legal materials, and other documents dealing with the subject of intellectual freedom and censorship. The book is divided into five parts: (1) "The Theoretical Foundations of Censorship…

The metaphor of community has become central to discussions about reading, writing, and teaching. According to this metaphor, an individual learns a discourse through entering into the community that uses it, and by accepting the practices and values of those already in it. Yet an argument can be raised for a definition of discourse that is not…

Accreditation is one of the institutionalized forces that now affects schools, colleges, and universities. Whether regional (institutional) or specialized (program specific), this form of evaluation has become well entrenched over the past 30-60 years. The purpose of this paper is to discuss some of the political/economic forces in the teacher…

The "new federalism" policies of the conservative governments of Malcolm Fraser in Australia (1975-1982) and Ronald Reagan in the United States (1980-1985) are remarkably similar. Both men rode to power on the wave of conservative political, economic and social forces which swept the United States and Australia in the late 1970's. Both…

The problems of urban public schools and current reform efforts are examined in this issue of "FOCUS," a publication of the Educational Testing Service. Declining support from parents and teachers, budget cuts, declining enrollment and deficiencies in student performance in mathematics and science skills are among the problems discussed.…

The way test scores are used by both the public and private sectors, and the way in which this use is promoted and regulated indicates how some public policies are formed and who characteristically bears the cost of policies as well as who benefits. What has been happening in the relationship between test use and policy formation is not unique,…

A comparison of public opinion about state and national political issues focuses on the degree of constraint expressed by individuals. Constraint is the individual's tendency to coherently cluster issues. It is manifested when, for example, one favors tax cuts and decreased spending; lack of constraint is illustrated when an individual…

A national study of superintendents reveals that most superintendents (89.6 percent) consider their relationship with the community to be very important, and most (63.5 percent) spend a great deal of time on that relationship. There is a positive correlation between the importance superintendents assign to their relationship to the community and…

These four issues of "ACCT Trustee Quarterly" contain articles on topics of current concern to community college trustees. The first issue contains articles on high technology, humanistic management, a legislative history of the "Apple" Bill, trustee-president relations, educational quality, part-time instructors, and health promotion through…

Telephone interviews with 389 people were conducted by undergraduate students to test the hypothesis that attention to economic news in the media would result in more beliefs about the economy, and that both news media attention and beliefs would lead to the holding of stronger attitudes toward the current administration's economic policy.…

The author uses the "lifecourse" of one model--the community partnership plan--as a lens into school reform in Philadelphia, focusing particularly on the politics of school reform and Philadelphians' responses to privatization. The aim of the article is to show that education reform is not about the orderly implementation of a particular…