Described is a project intended to help junior high school students gain understanding and experience in political decision making. The hypothesis is that students will show an increase in political efficacy, interest, trust, and social integration when they become involved in the political functioning of their schools. This hypothesis is in…

This paper discusses the misuse of historical data in attacks on educational revisionism and describes the contributions made by revisionists. Maintaining that the works of historical revisionists must be critically analyzed and their inadequacies recognized if they are to have lasting value, the author presents a textual criticism of a recent…

This paper takes a critical look at a demographic study of Mexico, namely, Tad Fisher's "Mexico: The Problem of People". Fisher's study relies heavily on population growth as a poverty generating factor. The paper states that Fisher's study exhibited perceptual narrowness by not considering the Marxist interpretation that capitalist…

After describing Sweden's economic and political background, the author discusses its industrial democracy--workers' participation in management--and labor legislation, particularly the Act on Employee Participation in Decision-Making effective January 1, 1977. Contrasts beliefs in the unions' possible stranglehold of industry in co-determination…

California, in response to pessimism about the efficacy of public education, adopted the California Basic Educational Skills Test (CBEST), a three-part test of reading, writing, and mathematics required of teacher applicants. This paper takes a critical look at the genesis, passage, implementation, and consequences of the CBEST legislation. In…

The management crisis within higher education in developing countries reflects the wider crisis in educational management and public administration. The contemporary management context is further threatened by narrowing management capacity and capability due to the continued dwindling of already scarce resources and the increasing across-the-board…

This sociological perspective on multicultural education focuses on racial and cultural groups, but accents class and power correlates. The results of the civil rights movement took the nation to visions of integration, and when these faltered, to the recognition of diversity in the form of cultural pluralism, which nonetheless implies structural…

A systems model for the study of state higher education policy is adapted to reflect structural relationships within and among key units of government and organizations informally involved in the policy-making process, as well as more fluid political and economic contextual elements that mediate and shape the interaction between them. The model is…

The dissatisfaction theory of American democracy (Ianneccone and Lutz, 1970, 1978) purports that citizens do not become politically active until a high level of dissatisfaction is present and that superintendent turnover is the end result of a process in which the school board becomes increasingly unresponsive to its community, dissatisfaction…

The technical, social, and procedural phenomena that facilitate the effective utilization of analytic models in decision-making are examined. Attention is focused on the theoretical issues associated with: (1) selection and fit of the model to the needs of the decision setting; (2) human factors such as cognitive style and the political climate…

This report describes and assesses seven school-based planning projects to raise student achievement levels in the New York City Public Schools. Based on the principles of organizational development, the projects are: 1) the Renewal Program, a planning partnership between several high schools and the Economic Development Council, a nonprofit…

The effects of collective bargaining in higher education on quality faculty, leadership, and programs are assessed. It is suggested that labor contracts tend to function without much direct relation to quality, but that educational management has attempted to address quality as part of the labor contract. Much of the content of an agreement is…

Within the context of the reauthorization of the Vocational Education Act of 1963, as amended, the predominant issues for vocational education in the eighties will be refined into policies. Central issues related to reauthorization and to the larger picture of the future of vocational education can be generally grouped into four broad categories:…

The paper discusses rationales for simulation gaming and describes "Spiegeldorf," a socio-historical game which simulates socioeconomic conditions in early 1930 Germany and Nazi party tactics used to gain mass support. Objectives are to identify characteristic Nazi tactics and points of political ideology, describe German social classes…

The document examines the influence of political television commercials on voting behavior. In addition, the paper reports new data concerning the role of voter-oriented ads in socializing children to the political environment. Part I characterizes political ads and presents findings and conclusions of three voter surveys recently published in…