National standards are unnecessary for the top quarter of college-bound students. However, a national basic examination covering marketable skills in language and mathematics is crucial to improving the educational system for all other students. Establishing a National Basic Skills Certificate program would appease both liberals and conservatives.…

Describes a longitudinal observation of Chicago school reform by a research team, and chronicles a method for tracking the implications of school reform over time. The study concludes that Chicago school reform gained strength because it originated as a broad-based social movement that spread ownership among many groups and defined reform as an…

Examines Northern Ireland's teacher education reform from 1992-95, noting similarities and differences with developments in England and Wales and describing debates on partnership in teacher education. The paper highlights policy development in Northern Ireland and interactions between those involved in advising government and implementing policy.…

Squeezed by federal and city belt-tightening, Superintendent Franklin Smith is looking for new ways to fund the District of Columbia schools. These include contracting out food services, reduction in force, and closing old schools with maintenance problems. (MLF)

Uses the 1988 film "A World Apart" as a focus for commentary on the controversial topic of involving children in political activism. Analyzes Hannah Arendt's writings for opinions on childhood activism, contrasting Arendt's views with those of Robert Coles. Gives examples from the desegregation crisis in the United States, China's Maoist…

Reform of the university is discussed taking the perspective that advances in information technology will have a substantial effect on the university system. It is suggested that within 20 years, the traditional university will become an anachronism, supplanted by a unified system of information exchange. The New Zealand context is emphasized.…

A trend toward more aggressive lobbying for federal funding to support historically black colleges and universities is noted, and the experiences of several lobbyists are discussed. It is predicted that in the 105th Congress, organizations such as the United Negro College Fund and the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education…

Schools are caught in a tug-of-war between the needs of immigrant children and taxpayers unwilling to pay for bilingual teachers to teach them and for buildings to house them. Cites statistics about the number of immigrants entering the U.S. and the cost of providing them with education and other services. (MLF)

Describes the University of Kentucky Community College System, highlighting its centralized funding structure heavily dependent on state appropriations and tuition, a governance system that combines characteristics of open access and land grant institutions, and its role in workforce development shared with a separate system of vocational schools.…

A key public policy question regarding educational vouchers is: Who has the right to spend the huge sums of money involved--those who provide public education, or the students who "consume" it? Describes the Milwaukee and the Cleveland programs, the legal challenges in which they are involved, and the supporters and opponents of voucher plans. A…

Introduces several papers on reform in preservice education, addressing the nature and place of such reform within broader educational reform and discussing schools of education and their relationship to the reform agenda, schools of education as contexts for reform, teachers and their work, and beginning professors' role in preservice reform. (SM)

Describes the construction and results of a predictive model that could help identify what factors seemed to influence voter choices on a school voucher constitutional amendment in California. Precinct voting outcome data from the County of Los Angeles were linked to voter demographics along with measures of local school quality and existing…

The emergence of the Native voice in academia has provided much outstanding scholarship rising out of analysis of oral histories and textual authority of Native peoples. In the 1990s, however, attempts to discredit Native scholarship included the claim that "I, Rigoberta Menchu" was a willful fraud, debates over the Bering Strait theory…

Various interpretations of the historical forces affecting U.S. language policy and attitudes toward bilingual education are examined. Changing political, social, and economic forces, rather than any consistent ideology, have shaped the nation's responses to language diversity. U.S. language ideology has shifted with changing historical events,…

Analyzes the controversy surrounding bilingual education policy-making in New York City during winter 2000-01. Although bilingual education supporters prevented the intended "wipeout" of bilingual education programs, the "political storm" left these programs underfunded and systemic issues (growing numbers of English language…