The Radio-Television Journalism section of the Proceedings contains the following 7 papers: "Winner by a Sound Bite: Fairness and Balance in the 1998 Michigan Governor's Race" (Sue Carter, Frederick Fico, and Jocelyn A. McCabe); "The Effects of Competition on Television Coverage of City Hall" (Stephen Lacy, Charles St. Cyr, and…

A sample of Michigan cities is the basis for an evaluation of the economic benefits of collective bargaining to teachers and the economic impact of bargaining upon the school districts that employ and negotiate with them. The study's conclusions include: (1) Bargaining produced pay increases averaging 10 to 20 percent higher than teachers would…

This paper examines the effects of preschool expansion in Kalamazoo County on the county's economic development. Effects on the county's economic development are defined as effects on the employment and earnings of county residents. The estimated effects are found to be large relative to the costs. In addition to their relevance to Kalamazoo…

Analyzes changes in the teacher salary schedules of Michigan school districts between 1970 and 1980. Starting salaries decreased by an average of 20 percent over the decade; maximum salaries decreased by 15 percent. Student enrollment changes were a predictor of the changes in maximum salaries. (MLF)

Explains the attitude of the Kalamazoo Board towards staff accountability and presents a copy of the contract with its current superintendent. (WM)

This cooperative education survey of student employee salaries and benefits supplies information to educational practitioners throughout the Midwest interested in providing their student employees with reasonable and fair remuneration for their work. Two survey questionnaires were used, one for bachelors' degree programs and another for associate…

An exploratory analysis of four large educational data sets found evidence of schools and districts that consistently produced outstanding students, even after socioeconomic factors were controlled for. Outstanding Michigan schools had smaller classes, better-paid teachers, and more teachers with greater than five years experience. (Author)

This report applies a human capital/internal labor market theory of teacher mobility to school districts in the state of Michigan. Previously, this theoretical framework was used to explain teacher mobility within a single school district, the San Diego school system. The report is divided into four sections. Section I, the Introduction, presents…

A 1979 study of 200 randomly chosen teachers in grades K-12 in southeastern Michigan revealed that the teachers are less satisfied with the quality of their worklives, more fearful of losing their jobs, and more likely to experience problems with their jobs than are U.S. workers nationwide. (Author/WD)

In assessing educational equity among school districts, according to the authors, researchers should control for differences across districts in the prices of educational inputs. This paper tests a suggested index for one educational input, teacher salaries. The suggested teacher-salary index, based on a supply-and-demand model using 12 demand and…

Effective school leadership, in the form of a dedicated, skilled principal, is a key element in creating and maintaining high quality schools. Improving school leadership is particularly important for poorly performing schools. The passage of the federal "No Child Left Behind" legislation and Michigan's Education YES! School…

Kalamazoo has demonstrated that a comprehensive, performance-based system of administrator evaluation and accountability can work wonders. (Author/WM)

A comparison of the average salaries of male and female administrators was made in relation to assignment, highest degree earned, and professional experience. In the group of 8,071 administrators, there were 6,701 (83 percent) males and 1,370 (17 percent) females. The general pattern is a preponderance of males employed with average salaries…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Bush Budget Proposes Spending Freeze for U.S. Department of Education: Title I, Striving Readers, Statewide Data…

Examines the distrubution of the human resources of teacher experience and training, and class size among Detroit's schools, with particular emphasis on relationships between the percentage of black students in a school and the quality of its instructional staff. (Author/JM)