This report, the third in a series of studies of South Carolina's vocational education system, summarizes the results of a statewide survey of approximately 350 vocational center directors, guidance and placement personnel, and vocational teachers on the issue of how vocational education can best meet the needs of some 30,000 low achieving…

A statewide telephone survey of over 1,500 household heads in 58 Massachusetts cities and towns, conducted soon after the passage of Proposition 2 1/2 in November 1980, sought to discover why voters favored the law and what public services they wanted. Proposition 2 1/2 not only restricted Massachusetts property taxes but also reduced automobile…

In Spring 1982, a districtwide survey was conducted by Cerritos College (CC) to assess the educational needs of the surrounding community. Residents were asked to provide demographic information and respond to questions about their awareness of the college, their perception and evaluation of various CC roles, and their preferences for courses and…

This survey involved a representative sample of 1,046 adults who were interviewed, and a special sample of corporate executives (127) who responded to a mailed questionnaire. Chapter 1 presents findings on the Ontario public's general assessments of the quality of high school education and their dispositions toward public expenditures on various…

In this position paper, reservations are presented regarding the potential of knowledge management (KM) as it is currently applied to the learning and teaching activity of schools. We contend that effective KM is contingent upon the explication of a deep and shared understanding of the learning and teaching process. We argue that the most…

For a century Catholic schools have formed the basis for a strong system of acculturation into Catholic identity and values. Catholic schools provided a low-cost basic education and served as a common school for all social classes of Catholics. This system has weakened considerably in the last decades. Between 1970 and 2000 there was a net loss of…

A survey instrument developed to determine opinions of various groups on aspects of social policy and day care services was distributed among individuals involved in various ways with day care. The 42-item questionnaire used a Likert-type opinion scale to measure attitudes on: (1) aims and requirements of day care programs; (2) use of public…

To further develop a previously tested commitment analysis model for analyzing the commitments of local leaders to community education programs, telephone interviews were conducted of 272 leaders (255 men and 17 women) in a rural Wisconsin county of 30,000. The interview questions focused on their commitments to program goals in the latter…

A pilot study involving 55 Canadian university students demonstrated the value of administering an attitude inventory and a needs assessment instrument to adult students before attempting to teach them basic literacy skills. In addition to designing and piloting the two instruments, the purposes of the study included comparing expressed attitudes…

Interpretations of findings of three National Science Foundation (NSF) surveys are presented. These surveys included a large-scale survey of teachers and administrators, case studies of individual schools, and a review of the literature. The first part of the document, Mathematics Teaching Today in the Elementary and Middle School, is subdivided…

Judging by negative feedback regularly received from preservice program graduates, teacher educators have ignored their own experiences and the literature on learning. Some educational and general theory courses are not as effective as experientially-oriented classes, yet teacher educators still depend to a disproportionate degree on a lecture…

Small rural social systems tend to have great impact on the social behavior and performance of rural youth in higher education. The issue is the degree to which rural youth from a social environment requiring active and continuous social involvement can exist in a larger social system which may require more passive and observational modes of…

As a result of a series of miniconferences held throughout the United States on implementing career education in grades K-12, four implementation issues were identified and summarized in this monograph. (Other issues are treated in separate publications.) The issues which the K-12 educators identified as very important were the following: (1) the…

A longitudinal study of educational variables and drug use was conducted by interview with 635 young Puerto Rican adults. Half had been selected as representing a "high risk" population, half a "normal risk" population. Correlational analyses revealed that the use of all drugs was associated with a negative attitude toward…

Four questions were asked in this study: (1) Can educational opportunity be defined in terms of measurable alternatives? (2) Can the variables be grouped into separate meaningful factors? (3) What are the relationships among the factors? (4) Are the towns and school districts that are disadvantaged under one of the factors also disadvantaged under…