This booklet is one in a series of "hot topics" reports produced by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory. These reports briefly address current educational concerns and issues as indicated by requests for information that come to the Laboratory from the Northwest region and beyond. This document focuses on student attendance. During a…

The most widespread health and safety problem on college and university campuses in the United States today is high-risk alcohol use and related consequences. The heavy, episodic use of alcohol that 44 percent of college students engage in results in a myriad of consequences for both drinkers and nondrinkers, ranging from disturbed study and…

This article presents the findings of a large-scale educational survey on pupil perception of their school environment and suggests how teachers and administrators can assess the environmental climate in their own schools. (Author/RK)

Discusses the relations that administrators and school consultants have among themselves and with their student and community clienteles. (JM)

Proposes that schools offer alternatives in curriculum, methodology, environment, and administrative practices. (Author)

Increasing censorship activities and their sources are discussed. Strategies to respond to book banning include: (1) establishment in schools of a written selection policy; (2) development of a role for educational organizations in counteracting unnecessary censorship; (3) provision for parents to examine textbooks before purchase; and (4)…

Techniques teachers use to gain influence in their work places were examined. Techniques of employee influence appeared to fall into categories according to the way that they provide or deny legitimacy to the organization's formal and informal rules or to its administrators. (CJ)

This article points out how teachers can create a classroom environment that is conducive to learning through the use of sensitivity, humor, and discipline methods. Techniques for teaching students self-discipline also are discussed, along with 13 recommendations of the Teachers Association of Baltimore County (Maryland) for using school policy,…

The disciplinary policy at Chapelle Elementary School in Ypsilanti (Michigan), developed with staff participation, classifies some student behavior as "unacceptable" or "inappropriate." Either behavior requires the teacher to fill out a pink slip and send it with the student to the principal's office, but only unacceptable…

Interview data collected in Illinois and California school districts were used to conclude that teacher organizations and collective bargaining were (1) substantially changing the definitions of teacher work roles and the services schools provide children; and (2) altering the primary mechanisms for monitoring the quality of educational service…

Discusses a model for analyzing whether and how a particular school policy will be implemented. The model is based on Schultze's theories concerning policy implementation in decentralized organizations, and incorporates Lortie's and Cusick's ideas concerning student and teacher rewards. (Author/JM)

Despite the obstacles encountered in establishing the eight in-school suspension centers, the benefits for students were overwhelmingly positive. It is hoped that the specific suggestions formulated here can help counselors sponsor effective in-school suspension centers in their own schools. (Author)

From a safety point of view, there is a need to ensure that science teachers are appropriately qualified to teach their subject. Opportunities for accidents in school laboratories are legion and acquisition of skills and competence to obviate them is essential. (Author/RE)

The authors examine some reasons why secondary schools ignore or, at best, provide "band-aid" solutions to the adolescent reading problems that so upset the public. They conclude that secondary schools simply do not value reading achievement enough to expend on it the effort they willingly expend on physical education. (SJL)