New curriculum initiatives in Great Britain are reviewed for their effect on special needs students from 14 to 19 years old. Changes include restructuring the secondary curriculum, new examinations, and organizational changes. Also noted is greater centralization of educational policy. (DB)

Reviews the origins of the lecture as the format of choice for instructional television in the 1950s, and evaluates the effectiveness of this format. The development of educational television, including the trend away from liberal arts curricula and the role played by the government and the Ford Foundation, are also discussed. (13 references) (CLB)

The relative influence on public policy exerted by the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of the government are placed in a historical perspective in this discussion of political influences affecting education. Also included is an assessment of the growing influence of special interest groups, lobbyists, and Political Action Groups.…

Government-appointed education commission reports are seriously flawed and have resulted in misleading impressions that significant reforms have occurred as a result of commission efforts. The commission approach to educational change and improvement is compellingly reasonable but deceptively simplistic and general. (Author/CB)

Argues that advances in information technology, especially capacities to collect and combine data for marketing purposes, subvert protections of individual privacy and weaken the influence of the individual in democracy. (MS)

Explores Guyana's efforts to articulate and implement a national information order that would redress past information imbalances. (FL)

Examines a number of questions relating to the use of school facilities for meetings of student prayer groups. Answers those questions with reference to legislation and court decisions. (FL)

Uses several data sources to analyze the effects of reduced funding for human services on the voluntary sector in relation to services offered, use of professional personnel, reliance on service contracts, financing patterns, compensatory responses, and use of volunteers. Comments on the future status of volunteerism. (JAC)

This book explains how and why education research has come to suffer from its low-status reputation. Starting with the establishment of education as a distinct discipline, the book shows how the field, in a misguided attempt to be "scientific," turned away from the holistic and deeply social and pragmatic vision of John Dewey. It…

Federal education policy should: (1) define objectives and targets of its activities more precisely; (2) define minimal conditions of organizational performance; (3) distinguish among sources of variability in state-local program implementation; and (4) specify the relationship between strategy and structure. (CJ)

Interprets and evaluates relations between the U.S. government and the curriculum of U.S. public schools since World War II. The interpretations presented are reconstructed from authors of the time as well as current interpreters. (AM)

Two groups are in conflict regarding the temporary employment of aliens in agriculture. One group is in favor of government planning, and of direct government intervention in the market place. The other group is very reluctant for the government to intervene in the market place, and would prefer free enterprise to operate. (NQ)

Originally presented as the keynote address at the 1980 Annual Anglo American Special Education Conference, the article contains a brief historical perspective of the special education system, a detailed examination of the rationale for setting aside the special education system of the past, and recommendations for the creation of a future system.…

Focusing mainly on secondary schools in Great Britain, the article discusses educational problems which are likely to be of major importance in the 1980s. These include decreasing funds, demands for a return to basic objectives, controversy over centralization vs decentralization, and traditional vs alternative education. (DB)

Reports the nine recommendations of the Fortune Education Summit, held in Washington, D.C., a two-day conference of leaders from business, government, and academia to discuss specific steps business could take to help schools. Emphasizes cooperative planning. (FMW)