The contents of this book are organized in three parts, the first of which is divided into two sections. Part I. Political Influence in Local Education Policy Making. Section A. Politics of education in large cities: "Schools and politics in the big city," Robert H. Salisbury; "Fiscal status and school policy making in six large…

Recommendations of commission reports on improving quality in public education are seen as primarily political statements reflecting the public outrage over the declining quality of American schooling. If the recommendations for sharpening basic skills spill over into higher education, there will be pressure to make colleges into trade schools.…

From paper presented at annual meeting of the Association of American Law Schools on December 29, 1969, on behavior of state and local officials of five Midwestern communities in reaction to the 1962 school prayer decision of the Supreme Court. (IR)

Proposes that (1) during most of the nineteenth century leadership in public education primarily took the form of guiding a decentralized social movement; and (2) at the turn of the twentieth century much of the direction of the educational system devolved upon university experts and professional managers. (Author/DB)

Describes the response of an urban school district to the unexpected enrollment of large numbers of newly arrived immigrants. Focuses on the processes that resulted in the implementation of an alternative high school and its abrupt closure a year later, and explores the implications of these decisions for policy and practice. (SLD)

Four levels of authority within the educational decision-making structure in seven European countries and states for primary and lower secondary education are analyzed, and results are presented from a study of decision making. This study indicates a slightly higher degree of school autonomy in England/Wales, the Netherlands, and Sweden. (SLD)

This paper examines the cultural politics that arise when the decision is made to place health services in schools and suggests ways in which the different discourses that surface regarding program implementation might be reconciled. The policy analyses for the paper were based on a 2-year statewide evaluation of a supplemental school health…

The use of computers by institutional researchers is considered, with a focus on West Germany and Europe. Two developmental stages concerning higher education's political and economic contexts and information technology are addressed, along with the emerging tasks of instititutional research in higher education, and the functioning of…

Because of the increasing underutilization of school facilities in Arlington (Virginia), a case study of the management of these facilities was undertaken. The purposes of the study were to discover the political interactions leading to policy decisions on the management of underutilized facilities, to determine the actual policies that resulted…

As part of a larger study of political socialization in adolescence, 782 adolescents and 718 parents were surveyed to test hypotheses about political information as a function of the early phase of a presidential campaign and the news exposure level of the respondent. Despite shortcomings in the sample design and in the precision of interview…

China's educational system is the subject of this book, which includes observations and interpretations by individual members of an American delegation to the country in October, 1977. During the 18-day trip, the group visited preschool centers, primary centers, a middle school, colleges, universities and vocational schools, school-run factories,…

In this paper, social science utilization is studied as an aspect of legislative decision making. The purposes of the paper are to provide a review of political science literature on state legislatures, offer a theoretical framework for interpreting utilization of social science research, apply the framework to interview data, and generate a…

University management is examined with regard to six major areas: decision and participation, finance, information, human flows, physical plant and equipment, and academic planning. Comprehensive long and medium term planning is proposed with the special feature of decentralized decision making. The issue of information requirements for managerial…

A preliminary review of findings and implications of social science research utilization among government officials is provided. The data come from face-to-face interviews of 204 persons at the upper levels of decision making in the executive branch of the federal government. Section one presents descriptive data on the diversity of the…

The application of small group interaction and decision making assessment methods has demonstrated many of the interpersonal preferences, understandings, and attitudes of the Supreme Court. Six terms of the Supreme Court, from October 1969 through October 1974 were chosen for evaluation. Only those cases in which the formal opinion of the Court…