Bibliography of recent reports and articles selected by the Massachusetts Advocacy Center to highlight the relationship between school policies and practices and early school leaving. Selections reflect the belief that schools can change their practices to reduce dropout rate and, with remediation, improve the education of all students. (Author/PS)

College and university personnel directors are encouraged (1) to develop policies concerning acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) as it relates to job applicants, personnel records, and services, (2) to counter unfounded fears among co-workers, and (3) to develop and coordinate educational programs within the institution. (MSE)

Approaches the educational enterprise as a political system--advances the theory that more effective leadership can be fostered using that approach. (NKA)

Prompted in part by a recent Supreme Court decision, colleges and universities are reexamining their policies on sexual harrassment and are facing difficult ethical and civil liberties questions. Their goal is to eliminate harrassing behavior without jeopardizing academic freedom or employees' due-process rights. (MSE)

The ways in which universities have prepared for and managed the issues of conflict of interest and policy concerning delay of publication of university-industry collaborative research results are discussed in the context of the growth of such research and the congressional response to university-industry relationships. (MSE)

Argues that current grading practices in some schools lack consistency in several critical areas, including criteria for failure, absolute or relative standards, and motivation of slower students. Policies are suggested that will help educators develop fairer and more humane marking systems. (TE)

Questionnaires and interviews were used to study the selection of initial teacher training applicants at Scotland's 7 colleges of education, which handled 5,455 applications for 1,657 positions in 1982. Results showed diversity of selection approaches, uncertainty of purpose among selectors, and reliance on a short interview for assessing…

Discusses the problem of and solution to anxiety in school testing situations. Focuses on Hill and his colleagues' long term program of research. Describes school intervention studies where new evaluation procedures and teaching programs have been developed to help students perform better in evaluative situations. (CB)

A questionnaire given to parents, teachers, and principals of middle-school students shows general consistency among the three groups in ranking student behavior problems--except on student use of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, which is ranked high by parents but low by school authorities. (JW)

The assumption that education should be democratic is criticized, and how schools and universities in a democratic state should be governed is discussed. (Author/ND)

In a recent survey, parents and middle school students reported that they are challenged by the demands of homework. Responses to the survey, titled "The Great Homework Divide," indicate that students and their parents are struggling to adjust to the middle school workload, which can be both heavier and more varied than previously experienced by…

Both public and non-public school educators are aware that courts, over the last several decades, have played an increasingly significant role in defining school policy. Decisions in such areas as school desegregation, prayer, public school financing, student rights, collective bargaining, and other personnel issues attest to the extent and…

The Office of National Drug Control policy has put together this guide to assist educators, parents, and community leaders in determining whether student drug testing is appropriate for their schools. The aim is to provide anyone considering a drug-testing program in his or her community with a broad understanding of the issue and solid,…

The proportion of adolescents in the United States who are obese has nearly tripled over the last two decades. At the same time, schools, often citing financial pressures, have given students greater access to "junk" foods and soda pop, using proceeds from these sales to fund school programs. We examine whether schools under financial pressure are…

Many of the educational changes during the last decade are international in respect to both form and content. Behind the global flow of ideas and ideologies, there is an accelerated competition for positions at the marketplace. The role of education in the new liberal rhetoric is explicitly to give direct and substantial economic results.…