A flood of new multicultural readers and textbooks are hitting the market for writing and literature courses at the college level. Yet there has been no systematic examination of how these readers are being used, the purposes and audiences for which they are written, or the critical reception they have received. Multicultural readers distinguish…

An arts education task force was set up in North Carolina to identify critical issues related to arts education and to make recommendations for improving the public school programs. Fourteen recommendations are documented including that: (1) the Department of Public Instruction, the State Board of Education and the North Carolina General Assembly…

The usefulness of geography knowledge in a child's education is philosophically analyzed from two perspectives: (1) what geography knowledge should U.S. schools be teaching?; and (2) is there agreement about what types of geographical knowledge U.S. schools should teach? Only geographical knowledge that will be useful in life should be taught to…

This book critically examines gifted education in America as a demonstration of meritocracy and elitism in education. It is contended that, by creating and funding gifted programs, schools engage in a form of "educational triage", providing high quality education to an elite minority. The book addresses questions concerning the…

This review of five recent (1992 and 1993) books and journal articles is intended to illuminate characteristics of inclusive schools. The review defines inclusion as more than merely regular class placement for students with disabilities, to include a philosophy which celebrates diversity and the provision of a continuum of educational options.…

This pamphlet relates this quotation by R. Buckminster Fuller to the educational process: "To be optimally effective, undertake at outset the most comprehensive task in the most comprehensive and incisively detailed manner." The principle of synergy can be used to determine when something is "optimally effective." One example…

The educational establishment is under a great deal of pressure to improve and to prove to its critics that it has done so. This paper develops three concepts to support its thesis: effective schools, the change process, and outcomes-based education (OBE). To achieve effective schools, major change must take place. Yet change is not easy for…

This report presents a conceptual and structural framework for adult education staff development in Virginia. It recommends to Virginia adult educators and policymakers a set of structures to support staff development activities and then offers a philosophy to guide activities within those structures. The report first traces 2 years of a staff…

One of a series of reports documenting efforts at educational restructuring nationwide, this paper focuses on the achievements and ideas of James Comer, founder and director of the School Development Program (SDP) of the Child Study Center at Yale University. The first part of the report presents remarks made by Dr. Comer on the history and…

Australia's economy slowly emerged from recession in the 1990s. Populist government leaders claimed that their economic restructuring policies of the 1980s were responsible for the economic turnaround. But even with greater national economic optimism, Australians have wondered why their country has not fared better economically both internally and…

This paper presents 15 questions for educators and administrators to ask themselves in designing and implementing inclusive and collaborative school programs. Questions, and the accompanying answers, cover such issues as funding, parental support, district philosophy, support for teachers, service delivery, teacher attitudes, regular education…

This paper addresses misconceptions about the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA). Advocates claim that there has never been a statewide school reform of KERA's significance and magnitude. However, Kentucky legislators, both in 1909 and in the mid-1950s, passed governance and finance reforms considered to be as revolutionary as those of KERA. A…

Numerous reviews of the experimental research conclude that phonics is indispensable in word recognition instruction. However, there have been numerous objections to phonics teaching over the years. Some of the intolerance of phonics teaching reflects a lack of knowledge about the subject. Critics suggest that phonics hinders children's learning…

Developed as part of a symposium on alternative learning and teaching methods for high-risk learners at all grade levels, six papers are presented along with an introduction by Sharon La Pierre. "What the Arts Teach: Comments on the Arts, Cognition and Learning" (Elliot Eisner) discusses the ways in which the arts teach qualities not addressed in…

The history of the first 40 years of the community college movement was characterized by wide variations between the professional interests of educators and the educational interests of the public, with professional rhetoric attempting to minimize any apparent conflict. By 1930, the leadership elite of the junior college movement was comprised…