For more than a year the 2.3 million member National Education Association (NEA) and the 900,000 member American Federation of Teachers (AFT) engaged in merger negotiations. The plan was to bring American teachers together in one union for collective bargaining, political action, and education policy. This report gives a detailed picture of the…

Social capital is the glue that holds a community together. It is the network of relationships among persons that can be used to get things done. Social capital is a necessary, but not sufficient, ingredient of community building. A community must mobilize its social capital and the mechanisms of its infrastructure to face and resolve collective…

Join Together convened a panel of experts to review U.S. policies for addiction treatment and recovery. Although the panel reached an agreement on six recommendations for policy changes that can make help more accessible and expand treatment to more people. These recommendations are: (1) treatment for alcoholism and other drug addiction must be…

This paper argues that involvement in higher education policy research and development is important for college faculty since not doing so leaves the field to others who may not exhibit sufficient objectivity or adequately emphasize the goals of understanding, effectiveness, and efficiency. First, it identifies some general problems of policy…

This booklet, one in the Education Policy Institute series about teacher union issues, examines issues related to membership in the National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Both unions aggressively strive to enroll more members or require teachers to pay agency fees. If teachers want to change union policy,…

The National Curriculum, introduced under the Education Reform Act of 1988, has influenced the cultural politics of secondary schools in England and Wales. The National Curriculum began a new phase in the role of teachers developing school curriculum that is characterized by centralized control and external accountability. To many it suggests a…

In 1997, the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation requiring local school boards to conduct school safety audits for each school under their jurisdiction. Guidelines for helping educators conduct these audits are presented here. This guide is designed to help administrators chart an informed, responsible, and proactive course toward…

This report outlines several recommendations for new or substantially revised budget development procedures set out by the Illinois State Board of Higher Education. They include: (1) a statewide budget context report prepared early in the budget process that will provide colleges and universities with information they can use in their own budget…

The role of state and local policymakers in creating an environment conducive to cooperation between schools and human services agencies is discussed in this educational policy bulletin. To ensure effective service delivery programs and enabling policies, policymakers must consider: (1) the qualities of collaborative service delivery programs,…

From 1973 to 1978, the Rand Corporation conducted a national study of local public schools' responses to various federal programs requiring educational change--Title III of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), Title VII of the ESEA, programs financed by the 1968 Vocational Education Act, and the Right-to-Read program. This paper…

The final report from the Higher Education Library Integrated Network (HELIN)'s Task Force on Bibliographic and Authority Control begins with a statement of the charge to the task force. It then summarizes its activities in each of five areas: (1) documentation of local authority control (cataloging) practices; (2) consultation with vendors of…

This document describes a Northern Arizona University (NAU) program, Project Daylight, which is a comprehensive intervention and prevention program for alcohol and substance abuse problems on campus. The project involves the entire University community and is designed to be a total, comprehensive strategy. It involves faculty education, staff and…

This paper argues that a conservative, illusory, and technocratic rationality pervades recent educational policymaking in New York State. A document called "A New Compact for Learning," published by the State Education Department in March 1991, is analyzed to show that technocratic rationality, a functionalist theory of educational…

Considerations about school music programs, often considered to be a nonutilitarian element of school curriculum, are examined in this paper, with a focus on the application of technological thinking to school administration. Indepth interviews were conducted with 30-40 administrators, teachers, counselors, parents, and students in each of three…

The need for educators to recognize school/business partnerships and interinstitutional collaboration in a perspective generally shared among corporations is the focus of this paper. An overview of school/business partnerships is followed by a brief description of cooperative efforts that illustrates a shift toward more collaborative approaches.…