Agrees with Susan Allan's article in the same "Educational Leadership" issue that ability grouping research is often misinterpreted--to the disservice of students. Reviewers should distinguish among three types of programs that differ according to curricular adjustment and acceleration effects. Blanket condemnation of all three types is…

Issues of success and failure of Wave I reform initiatives in the United States are explored. A review of the financial, political, and organizational factors used to support reform measures in the early and middle 1980s indicates that, although these influences were considered ineffectual, they succeeded more than anticipated. (TJH)

Examines, rhetorically, the formal dynamics and internal action of an eighteenth-century political text by Edmund Burke, the "Letter to William Elliott, Esq." (1795). (SR)

Although principals should be playing a pivotal role in activating educational reform, their voices have remained relatively silent. Principals have been noticeably absent from national report commissions. Principals can exercise more political clout by building important relationships; aggressively pursuing strategic, usable information;…

Complains that the relevance of research to educational reform evaporated in 1985 when the William Bennett/Chester Finn team began to promote reform by rhetoric. A reorganized Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) then abandoned plans to forge a strong link between researchers and practitioners. (MLH)

Discusses the theories of relativism and radical pedagogy. Supports the goals of radical pedagogy, but maintains that sophisticated conceptions of relativism are vital to any system of critical thinking. Identifies caveats for teaching relativistic conceptions to students, and suggests ways to foster "healthy" relativist critical thought…

Examines the impact of politics on curriculum decision-making from a political theory viewpoint. To deal with problems resulting from an authoritative allocation of values in curriculum decisions, the relation between the political system and the school system must be modified to include mutual respect. Includes 11 references. (MLH)

A French television program using puppets for political satire is discussed and its instructional applications are examined. (MSE)

Describes "academentia," the delusion that disciplines are intellectually powerful as a result of their specialization. Prescribes "neighborliness"--intellectual and practical work done from the perspective of critical consciousness--as the antidote to academentia. Suggests that writing projects have great potential as…

Describes the distinction between the National Endowment for the Arts, which funds artists, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, which funds those who talk about art. Examines the similar distinction in alliances between writers and scholars in English departments, focusing on their effects on writing programs. (MM)

Maintains that the humanities get "screwed" in the academy because they are feminized. Explores this process of "feminization," focusing on college English departments. Offers a different view of the relationship between "soft" humanities and "hard" disciplines, reconceived from a feminist perspective. (SR)

Argues that literary history and estimations of literary value are inseparable and that their connection has import for debate on the contents of the literary canon. Suggests possible requirements for developing a feminist theory and practice of evaluation. (SR)

Challenges two widely accepted ideas infused throughout many writers' workshops: deeply personal writing has transformative power in society; and all literacy is inherently political. Argues that being fluent in many written forms is the best way to provide students with a useful, lifelong tool. (SR)

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is angry about the way education works in New York City and is determined to debureaucratize schools and make them safer. Memories of his own parochial school education inspire Giuliani to hold up the Catholic school system as a possible reform model. He favors school choice and differs with the chancellor over safety and…

Postmodernism is an articulation of a tension between contingency and commitment. Since this commitment is typically pedagogical, education has a strong reason to stay within postmodernism. The paper reviews the feminist debate on postmodernism, examining how postmodernism contributes to the emancipatory interests of education. The public-private…