The question of whether research supports a "phonics first" approach to teaching reading is not entirely answerable by factual evidence or statistical data: the issue is partly a matter of values and opinion. The debate is over whether phonics should be taught and tested in isolation, as a prelude to reading texts (the phonics-first…

This digest of a full-length report provides a review of state level budgeting for higher education in terms of the underlying interplay of human and external forces coupled with factors that are present in the budgeting process itself. The environmental context includes historical, political, economic, and demographic factors. These factors…

This article traces the development and rationale of the School Improvement Program proposed by the new Labor Government of Victoria (Australia). The program would be based on school communities, each voluntarily developing a long-term project improving the school as an educational entity. The design assumptions, funding criteria, and implications…

A study tested the cumulative acquisition model proposed by S. H. Chaffee and A. R. Tims to explain the development of adolescent patterns of news media use. The Guttman scale procedure was used to analyze patterns of news media use across a three-wave panel survey of 366 parent-child pairs over a 2-year period. In each wave, interviewers talked…

After criticising the prevalent assumption of organizational theory that organizational behavior is based on common typological forms, this paper proposes a political analysis of schools as organizations as a practical theory general enough to be useful to practitioners. The first section reviews the basic elements of comparative structural…

This report constitutes proceedings of a seminar held in Portland, Oregon (September 1983), by representatives of 15 state education agencies, conceived as a forum for exploring state-level policy and program options. Four topical areas were the subject of speaker presentations: "The Effective Schooling Research Base," by Ronald M. Smith…

Brief information is given on May events celebrated by Puerto Ricans: May Day; Mother's Day; World Red Cross Day; Armed Forces Day; Memorial Day; and the birthdays of Horace Mann ("Father of the Common Schools"), Harry S. Truman, Luis Llorens Torres (poet), Ralph Waldo Emerson (poet), and Patrick Henry (stateman and orator). Designed as…

Articles in this yearbook address the problems associated with how reading research informs practice. Articles, listed with their authors, are as follows: (1) "Reading Research into Policy and Practice: Practitioner's Viewpoint" (Deborah L. Thompson); (2) "Michigan's Reading Program: A Decade of Change" (Elaine M. Weber); (3)…

A survey of decentralization efforts of the central administrative boards in Sweden shows that over the past half-century, very little happened until the 1980s. As a result, administrative boards acquired fewer regulatory and more informative, activating, and investigative duties. This paper describes the relationships of three national…

A law-based dissertation which contains a 400-page legal reference guide for public school teachers and administrators in the area of teacher-employer relations is mentioned in this speech. A case law approach was utilized in understanding the issues involved in teacher-employer relations. The background, discussion, and trends are founded on…

Policies to change the way teachers are trained, licensed, and compensated constitute a major part of the educational reform agendas advanced by state governments over the past several years. These policies have been extremely difficult to implement, and state officials face the prospect that many of them will need substantial modification. This…

This paper recounts the controversy surrounding the development and implementation of alternate route teacher certification in New Jersey. The opposing forces in the debate were the governor and the commissioner of education versus education professors and teacher unions. The debate is presented as an uneven conflict in which the forces of the…

In 1983 California enacted a comprehensive bill containing dozens of education reform provisions (Senate Bill 813). A sample of 17 secondary schools was selected in order to understand if a number of state-level education reform features could be implemented locally. The major study findings listed below are described in greater detail in the…

The formation of hypotheses and generation of a theory to explain and predict the outcomes of educational reforms based on the concept of school reform cycles is the purpose of this paper. Two complementary hypotheses are proposed to explain the success or failure of educational reforms. The first hypothesis is based on an inverse relationship…

This book examines the current school reform debate as a product of tension between elitist and egalitarian goals for education. Chapter 1, "Making Choices," reviews issues in the current debate and provides a general outline of the book's argument. Chapter 2, "The Mission of Schooling," analyzes the reform debate in the context of resurgent…