Christian schools, like all private schools, face the challenge of building and maintaining the confidence of parents and other stakeholders. Their public relations efforts should be rooted in institutional mission and core values, factors that influence parents to elect this educational option. Administrators and others often overlook the fact…

The modern-day lobbyist is uniquely qualified to provide lawmakers with information that would take an overworked staff countless hours to obtain; hence, the relationship of lobbyist and lawmaker has evolved into a network of accommodation and mutual assistance. Consistent with persuasion theory that recognizes the limitations of discourse,…

This book examines the changing politics and administration of school-community relations. Among the array of recent educational improvement and school-reform initiatives nationwide, there is new interest in strengthening connections between public schools and the parent/community clientele. Part 1 examines changing school-community interactions…

This paper presents findings of an ethnographic study that analyzed the constraining and enabling dynamics of parental involvement in schools. The study was conducted at a suburban, an urban, and a rural high school, but the paper reports only the results from the suburban and urban schools. Data were derived from interviews with a total of 98…

This document consists of four issues of the "Journal of Educational Relations' published quarterly during 1996. The journal's motto is "Promoting student achievement through positive school-home-community relationships." Articles in the first issue of this volume include: "The Electronic Superintendent" (James Donlevy and…

The development of Tennessee's Master Teacher Program is described in this case study, the first in a series of project reports. Data were derived from interviews, document analysis, transcriptions and analyses of meetings, informal conversations, questionnaires, and monitoring of legislative sessions and committee hearings. Following an…

South Carolina's successful comprehensive school plan to develop and maintain public support for its school reform package, the Education Improvement Act, is offered in this paper, which focuses on the necessity of public support for successful reform. Key components of the plan are described, which include timing and public interest, state…

The pregraduation internship is a vital link between public relations classes and the public relations professions. Practitioners consistently regard the internship as the most crucial aspect of a public relations degree program. Interns should be of junior or senior standing, have completed some, if not most, of their public relations course…

Because of its pervasive "image problem," vocational education (VE) is not being given high priority by leaders of the new vocational education school reform movement and it is being forced to compete against others in the arena of education for a shrinking student population and scarce resources. Like other service industries, VE has…

This paper addresses the question, "What is the relationship of communications--in the sense of technology of information--and community?" The answer is the Internet. Public relations educators must teach students and practitioners how to best use the Internet to enhance public relations community-building. The implications of today's Internet are…

A study examined the similarities and differences which exist in the professionalization of public relations in Austria, Norway, and the United States. Subjects, 136 of 188 members of the Public Relations Verband Austria, 150 of 300 members of the Informasjonsforeningen (Norway), and 272 of 500 members of the Public Relations Society of America,…

A study explored the factors that influenced the career choice of minority public relations professionals, the level of satisfaction with their career choice, and whether they perceive that they have been victims of labor market discrimination. Subjects, 140 public relations practitioners listed in the Directory of Minority Public Relations…

This guidebook shows how governors and states have worked on engaging the public in education reform. It focuses on important strategies to consider during the process of building public support for education reform. It highlights state strategies for communicating about progress made toward achieving the National Education Goals and for promoting…

This booklet provides advice on how schools can forge useful working relationships with the news media. Nineteen ground rules for working with print or broadcast media are outlined. The most important rule for all occasions is to make sure that your information is true. Strategies are described for using various tools of the trade, such as the…

Drawing numerous parallels between educational management and business management, this document compares skills, characteristics, and responsibilities of administrators to those of a corporate executive officer (CEO), provides a short list of school assessment questions, describes effective management practices and their expected results when…