Gives the text of a speech to the FLEAT Conference in Tokyo (August 1981) in which the Joint National Committee for Languages (JNCL), the President's Commission, and recent congressional support are cited as reasons for continuing optimism on the future of the foreign language teaching profession. (EKN)

Better-integrated, more comprehensive models in the social sciences for practitioners involved in policy making and administration are needed. Marxian historical materialism, systems theory, and a mathematical language of analysis are required to analyze modern capitalist countries, either more or less developed. (KC)

Reviews the history of immigration policy in the United States. Emphasizes the persistent failure of policy to control ethnic selection and immigrant volume despite legislative efforts to introduce ethnic equality and reduce the number of illegal migrants. (Author/MJL)

Federal education policy should: (1) define objectives and targets of its activities more precisely; (2) define minimal conditions of organizational performance; (3) distinguish among sources of variability in state-local program implementation; and (4) specify the relationship between strategy and structure. (CJ)

Get-tough discipline policies may contribute to student misbehavior in school. Educators may also contribute by humiliating students who fail, unnecessarily complicating discipline policies, enforcing rules arbitrarily and inconsistently, punishing unfairly, or using double standards for teachers and students. The best discipline programs are…

Problems with funding, politics, and policy formation for research in the social sciences raise the question of what results are expected from such research. Action based on research results usually does not follow closely the completion of research projects, and policy is often out of step with research. (MSE)

Describes the development of an effective policy on religion in the schools by the Sioux Falls (Iowa) School District and discusses the factors behind the U.S. Supreme Court's refusal to overturn the policy. (PGD)

Describes four stages of policy formulation (issue definition, deliberation on policy options, authoritative allocation, and performance oversight) and four types of policy-relevant social research (descriptive, explanatory, critical, and forecasting). Proposes a model showing the linkages among research types, policy-making stages, and policy…

Provides observations about the Australian experience with financing private education and draws implications of this experience for American policy. The changing economic and political dynamic of Commonwealth aid in the near future may provide some additional insights for American policymakers as they consider new federal initiatives to aid…

Examines two interpretations of the impact of microelectronics technology on international manufacturing and economic activities. The author describes how differences in estimates of the scope of changes caused by microelectronics and the relationship of these changes to concepts of industrialization will affect economic policy formation. (AM)

Notes the lack of definition of the term "humanities" and the four-part litany that comprises the usual rhetoric of humanities advocates. Considers the Rockefeller Commission report on the humanities in light of the nondefinition, the four-part litany, and the fragmentation of any argument espousing "more attention to the…

Describes new perspectives on immigrant acculturation in the disciplines of history, mental health, and language studies. Discusses the implications of these new perspectives for national policymaking. (ST)

The failure of education to influence economic growth and social and political equity has raised serious questions about the practice of educational planning. Four planning activities (logistics, techniques, politics, and research) are examined and suggestions for changing the ways planners can influence the social order are made. (Author/SK)

The author considers possible educational changes in serving learning disabled students and cites opinions of others such as P. Daniels, who advocates return to self-contained classrooms, and J. Goodlad, who suggests that schools are trying to do too much. (CL)

Financial policies are viewed as buffers that protect the core activities of a college from fluctuation and that maximize the return of investments in all areas. Assumptions necessary for making financial policies are detailed and a strategy is outlined for developing financial policies that mesh with institutional plans. (Author/MLW)