To address the professional needs of principals and other middle management supervisors, school boards might consider meet-and-discuss sessions, a middle ground between unilateral board action and collective bargaining. Sessions are nonbinding, produce better decisions, confront root causes of job dissatisfaction, and can strengthen the management…

Individual members of state legislatures wield the greatest influence in state level policy formation. This was one of the findings of a study that identified the power and influence context of state-level policymaking. Data were gathered from six states (Arizona, California, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Illinois) using an instrument…

An examination of collective gaining (interaction between people in a collective and collaborative transaction in which everyone gains) in educational institutions involves comparisons with collective bargaining, two case studies, a discussion of theoretical bases, and a consideration of do's and don'ts. Collective bargaining is anti-intellectual,…

Before there can be an understanding of politics, policy, and action in education, there must be an understanding of the value systems of policymakers. Policymakers, in their talk, in their choices of symbols and metaphors, in their choices of strategies for dealing with conflict, reveal their own needs, their role orientations, their group…

Designed to guide and structure the needs assessment of Pennsylvania children with special health care needs, this document describes six specific steps in planning and conducting a needs assessment. The steps include: (1) stating the goals of the needs assessment, including fulfilling legislative mandates, identifying geographical areas that have…