Discusses the career paths of several black and other college presidents, focusing on how they rebounded from firings or forced resignations. Considers political and other issues that particularly affect minority presidents of community and private colleges, as well as the importance of the fit between institution and president. (DB)

Argues that systematic phonics is destined to fail as a method of reading instruction, and will make learning to read more difficult for many children. Argues it totally misunderstands or ignores how children actually learn to read; the time to learn phonics, if at all, is during reading; and phonemic awareness is spurious. Looks at ideological…

Ending all social promotion is ill-advised. A responsible decision on grade retention should be based on factors such as a child's age, health, maturity, testing readiness, previous academic performance, and available emedial services. Many retained children do not show enough improvement to justify the practice. (MLH)

Uses Argentina as an example to explore issues of participatory reform and democracy, discussing the national and international background of Argentina's educational reform and describing the Argentinean educational system and sociocultural realities that create the local context of reform. Uses findings from studies of school site councils in…

Questions whether the marketing of higher education is a uniquely American phenomenon, or whether it applies to Canadian higher education. Believes that several basic differences between Canadian and American universities make this less likely in Canada: lower financial rewards for faculty who enter academic administration, course evaluation…

This rejoinder to commentaries on the authors' original article (EC 630 380) concerning the balance between science and politics in the education of students with learning disabilities first clarifies and expands particular points, then addresses each of the four commentaries individually. The authors urge increasing scientific research and…

Analyzes 10 widely used secondary history textbooks for references to Christianity and the Religious Right in contemporary American history (after 1945). Discusses the relationship of private faith and public behavior, President Jimmy Carter's faith and motivations, the Religious Right and politics, television evangelism, and textbooks' inadequate…

Presents a discussion of symposium participants' excitement as well as frustrations over the ways in which current work in composition and literacy studies has explored the politics of the personal. Offers an example of how personal writing can promote the material as well as the subversive authority of professional discourse. (SG)

Argues the case for democratic practices in adult graduate study, which include balancing and negotiating power, fostering collaboration, and enabling shared decision making. Advocates the cohort model for graduate education. (Contains 14 references.) (SK)

Adult basic and literacy education (ABLE) is governed by political processes that impede practice. New trends that may help move ABLE toward democracy include the Internet as a site of policy debates and advocacy and use of the findings of practitioner action research. (Contains 16 references.) (SK)

A systematic, labor-intensive inventory of all local environmental groups in the Delmarva Peninsula and the state of North Carolina found 566 local groups, 7-20 times the number in published directories. Unexpectedly, high school student groups made up about 30 percent of the total. Groups' diverse objectives, primary activities, and alliances are…

Re-introduces contemporary educators and policymakers to the spirit of equal educational opportunity that animated their predecessors prior to the introduction of the excellence movement, noting that reformers generally understate the demands of authentic equality of educational opportunity in a society characterized by chronic divisions of class…

Explores the "middle-class pressure thesis"--the extent that recent education policy in England under New Labour may be shaped by responses to an increasingly large and anxious middle class. New Zealand, with similar market reforms, developed a less class-conscious, more egalitarian approach. (Contains 93 references.) (MLH)

In an effort to bring greater conceptual richness and analytical rigor to bear on the question of postsecondary policy innovation, this study builds on the work of Hearn and Griswold (1994) by analyzing the determinants of state policy innovation in the postsecondary arena over nearly a 20-year period. Specifically, the authors employ longitudinal…

This paper considers participation in unconventional politics and its determinants. In particular, analyses presented below focus on differences in low-risk protest activity among non-Latinos and Latinos of Mexican, Puerto Rican and Cuban origin. Central to this analysis is an examination of individual and network determinants of unconventional…