This paper aims to identify critical constraints as perceived by U.S. and California women superintendents and to determine how these women overcame them. The Survey of Influences on Female Superintendents' Careers (SIFSC) was used in two studies to collect quantitative and qualitative data on women superintendents in the United States and in…

This book examines the impact of public education on the national culture in the context of educational reform and Reconstruction during the 1870s. Chapter 1, "Prologue to the Seventies," traces the evolution of the American public school through the social, economic, and industrial changes of the early 19th Century, culminating with the…

This report provides findings from a study that aimed to identity: (1) the impact of charter schools on school districts; (2) the ways school districts had responded; and (3) whether districts had experienced systemic change as a result of charter laws and the opening of charter schools. The study was conducted in 1997, six years into the nation's…

Recent battles over proposed national testing programs do not tell the important political story about high-stakes tests. An overview of the politics of school-accountability systems is offered in this World Wide Web journal article. Politically popular, school-accountability systems in many states already revolve around statistical results of…

This paper analyzes the rise of "PRolicy" (Public Relations public policy) by examining the first Reagan Administration and its use of media manipulation. The paper also explores how PRolicy influences educational policy. It draws on a two-pronged methodological approach that involved media analysis and historical policy analysis with a…

This paper assesses the current status and problems of the National Diffusion Network (NDN), a federally funded endeavor established to enable developers of educational programs to provide evidence that their programs improve student outcomes; and to disseminate their programs nationwide through a network of state facilitators. The study discusses…

Offered as a guide to action in uncertain times, this paper reviews literature on Australian educational restructuring and recent revolutions in east central Europe. The questions asked in both sets of literature differ; however, those posed by the revolutions in eastern Europe have a more directional focus. The research questions posed by the…

The educational policy implementation process is examined in this book, which shows how policy implementation has evolved through several stages during the past 25 years. The first two stages primarily addressed macro-implementation issues of whether and how policies initiated at higher levels of government became implemented in school districts…

Recent years have witnessed a great upsurge in interest in a core curriculum. However, there has been some disagreement as to what should be included or how it should be defined. Allan Bloom has argued most strongly that the "Great Books" should form the basis of the core curriculum. Not only is the term itself ambiguous, but the…

Findings of a study that examined the first 2.5 years of radical state intervention in the operation of the Jersey City Public Schools are presented in this paper. Control of the district was assumed by the state department of education in October 1989. The first section describes the historical background of takeover action in New Jersey and its…

A controversy at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in New York State over that institution's involvement with classified research for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) raised issues regarding classified research and institutional leadership. In 1991 M. Richard Rose, then president of RIT, took a 4-month sabbatical to work for the…

This paper explores and attempts to answer some of the fundamental questions and challenges brought against organizational communication scholars who follow the critical tradition. Specifically addressed in the paper are the following issues: (1) the vocabulary of critical theory; (2) assumptions and goals of critical theory; (3) critical theory…

One of the most interesting controversies in the theory of teaching composition--and one that has profound consequences for classroom practice--is the debate over "ideological" or "radical" pedagogy. In the minds of most mainstream Americans, an ideological education is associated with dictatorship and state control of…

This paper discusses the relationship between culture and curriculum, examining the ways in which school constituencies seek to manifest some aspect of culture in the school curriculum. These individuals and groups operate formally and informally to have schools become fitting means to some valued ends. The relationship between schools and their…

Many educators and community members are concerned about public education and attempts at education reform. Communication, conflict, and attempts at consensus are all parts of carrying out education reform. Four school districts in different parts of the country were examined to see how they handled school reform. The study included interviews…