Discusses the difficulties of funding parental or school choice systems in public schools through traditional school finance mechanisms. It examines the parental-choice program as enacted in Massachusetts, and reveals that parental choice undermines local control over education. It also explores school choice and educational equity, arguing…

The Baltimore New Compact Schools model offers schools an opportunity to cluster their resources, personnel, and funds. The Hirsch Core Knowledge Curriculum helps all three elementary schools compensate for disadvantaged students' lost learning time. The nonprofit Enterprise Foundation offers schools leadership, management, and technical support.…

Staff at a Louisville, Kentucky, school have created a caring community of learners whose members feel valued, personally interconnected, and committed to everyone's growth and learning. Child Development Project schools emphasize warm, supportive, and stable relationships; constructive learning; intrinsic motivation; a challenging curriculum; and…

This article discusses the need for competitions and contests in schools to develop and enhance talents in academics, fine and performing arts, leadership, and service learning. An academic contest school assessment checklist is included. Information on several national contests for children and youth is presented. (CR)

The University of Texas is one of a number of universities entering the managed-care business to hold on to their teaching hospitals' niche in a radically-altered health-care market. The process is expensive, and observers worry that the institutions are underestimating the risks involved. Some have been relatively successful, and feel medical…

Pennsylvania State University will turn 14 of its two-year campuses into four-year colleges, changing the face of higher education in the state and raising concerns for competing institutions. Three campuses will retain two-year status. The change is due to overcrowding at the University Park flagship campus, and because too few two-year campus…

Election of a new executive director for H-Net, a humanities and social sciences mailing-list network, is marked by controversy over the large role of Michigan State University in the network, due to the incumbent's faculty status there, and over the extent of his authority. The conflict has extended to how open the network should be to diverse…

Details a program sponsored by the Potomac Region Solar Energy Association (PREA) that provides local high school students with access to photovoltaic kits and encourages them to learn more about photovoltaics through a design competition. The purpose of this article is to inspire groups in other communities to initiate similar projects. (DDR)

Compared boys' and girls' use of interference competition during game play when resources were scarce or plentiful, among children from kindergarten or fourth grade. Found that fourth-grade girls used less interference competition when resources were plentiful, while their male peers and kindergartners of both sexes used interference competition…

This article describes the Future Problem Solving Program, a year-long curriculum project with competitive and non-competitive options. The international program involves 250,000 students and is designed to help students enlarge, enrich, and make more accurate their images of the future. Team problem solving and individual problem solving…

Studies relationships among sex difference, performance expectation, and actual performance in video game competition between female and male subjects. Finds that self-confidence of females is not lower than that of males after competing against a good opponent, indicating that performance expectancies may be more related to skill level than to…

Analysis of the impact of current student financial aid policy on different sectors suggests that new policy is required. The success of the proprietary sector in increasing its market share at the expense of other sectors (e.g., community colleges) provides useful lessons about aggressive recruiting. (Author/MSE)

Delineates the cases for and against the privatization of government information and describes the various forms privatization has taken in the United States and other countries. Major studies and positions are evaluated, current U.S. policy is critiqued, and recommendations for further action and discussion are offered. (31 references)…

Young children are capable of prosocial behavior interactions during participation in games; and for the children who participated in the study reported in this article, games possessing cooperative goal structures resulted in more prosocial behavior interactions than games possessing competitive goal structures. (IAH)

When coaches establish an effective working relationship with parents, the quality of the athlete's, coach's, and parent's experience improves. This article outlines techniques for coaches to gain the confidence and support of parents, to help parents formulate wholesome expectations, and to enlist parents' aid in developing skill and…