Confronted by complex and divisive issues and by groups seeking participation in policymaking, the Salt Lake City Board of Education adopted a shared governance policy in the middle 1970's. The policy mandated creation of two related councils at each school site. The School Improvement Council (SIC) consisted of the principal and specified school…

To develop a list of research priorities for rural education, members of the Rural Education Association's (REA) Research Committee and Executive Board were asked to rank order nine thematic research categories. The ranking process resulted in the following list (starting with the highest priority): (1) rural school effectiveness; (2) staff…

Today's administrators must exercise caution in using student retention as a means of responding to changing social values and to the current media attention on declining standardized test scores. Recent reviews of hundreds of studies of student retention have concluded that some low achieving students do benefit from retention, but the majority…

To establish effective school discipline policies, educators need to understand (1) the nature of and reasons for misbehavior, (2) social and legal attitudes toward the school's disciplinary function, (3) acceptable responses to disciplinary problems, and (4) what effective policies cover. This booklet's first chapter considers the need for…

Most recent initiatives to improve teaching may be characterized as top-down, compliance-oriented policies that seek to increase accountability and regulate different aspects of the profession. Little regard has been paid to the development of assistance programs at the state level that aim at building capacity among teachers and local school…

All countries desire direct satellite broadcasting (DSB) since it can create a telecommunications network without an expensive land-based transmission system. However, with this ability comes disagreement over not only how to use DSB to the greatest benefit, but also how to protect the system from what many see as potentially great misuse. Among…

The process of developing the curriculum and determining educational policy in the schools of the state of Victoria, Australia, has shifted in recent years from being a function of the state bureaucracy to being a matter for collaborative decision-making among parents, students, teachers, administrators, and others involved in education. To ensure…

To help members of the Portland Public Schools' Board of Education make informed decisions about the school district's role and responsibility for before-school and after-school child care programs, research and evaluation staff gathered information concerning policy, administration, and program issues. Findings, conclusions, and recommendations…

This report focuses on the legal framework governing the operations of child care centers and family day care homes in the state of Hawaii. The scope, adequacy, and effectiveness of these regulations in protecting the health, safety, and welfare of young children are reviewed. A secondary focus is the management of the child care regulatory…

Company policies and programs aimed at reducing smoking among employees have a number of other important benefits to employees and the company alike. Limiting or banning smoking helps create a safe and healthy workplace and may reduce direct health care costs, health and life insurance costs, employee absenteeism, costs associated with maintaining…

This paper outlines a holistic approach to the introduction of multicultural teacher education in an institution centrally committed to combating prejudice in its policies, procedures, and practices. The components of a holistic approach are described as: (1) discourse with the community; (2) the preparation of a policy statement; (3) recruitment…

Many states are adopting alternative certification programs as a nontraditional means of preparing educational personnel and for admitting into the profession people with degrees in other fields who do not have teacher preparation. This paper clarifies the term alternative certification and establishes a definition for programs. Various…

Many feel that textbooks dominate what students learn. They set the curriculum and often the facts learned in most subjects. For many students, textbooks are their first and sometimes only early exposure to books and to reading. The public regards textbooks as authoritative, accurate and necessary and many teachers rely on them to organize lessons…

State policymakers should confront increasing public concern about the rising costs of postsecondary education, to preserve institutions' credibility and avoid damage by excessive political reaction. Attention to this issue has focused on extremes, obscuring the fact that only a small proportion of students attend extremely costly colleges.…

The goal of the 1986-1991 University of Alaska (UA) System Six-Year Plan is to serve as the foundation for a restructured and revitalized university system sensitive to the changing needs of the people of Alaska. Such a university system can be attained only in an environment of understanding and cooperation, where the needs of all residents are…