Although state policy makers have been setting new standards for public school promotion and graduation under the rubric of Competency Based Education (CBE), they have used the concept of CBE in two different ways; one involves focusing school activities and graduation requirements on various competencies, whereas the other specifies how education…

For the U.S. to survive despite intensifying international competition, accelerating technological change, oppressive public and private debt, and demographic and work force changes, the learning enterprise must become far more productive. Two 1998 scenarios are presented: business-as-usual (favoring the rich) and a restructured system based on…

A survey of the educational policy and system of West Germany is presented. The federal government and 11 federal states (Laender) operate in conjunction, creating an educational policy that occurs on two levels. A brief historical sketch is followed by a general description of educational policy, planning, and research in the context of the…

The six chapters of this publication describe primary education in Bangladesh. Chapter 1 traces the development of primary education through British, Pakistani, and post-independence periods. Chapter 2 briefly reviews constitutional and legal mandates for primary education in Bangladesh. Chapter 3 describes the general organization and…

As a guide to educational administrators working in large cities, abstracts of 161 books, pamphlets, papers, and journal articles published between 1924 and 1966 are classified into five categories: (1) Centralization versus decentralization, (2) local government, (3) metropolitan organization, (4) the financing of education, and (5) the…

The author examines the process and political dynamics of educational reform in greece by focusing on the Education Act of 1976 (Law 309), "On the Organization and Administration of General Education." The main concern is the reform proposals pertaining to the organization, the curriculum, and the general orientation of the school…

This paper falls into three parts: a description of the current French educational system and the groups influencing it; presentation of the more pressing educational problems of the 1980s; and a draft of developmental modifications likely to occur if liberals or, alternatively, socialists win political power in the early 1980s. (Author/SJL)

Considers early arguments in Great Britain for adjusting the traditional curriculum to the changing needs of the secondary school population and for developing the "multi-bias" school, one which would allow educational opportunity for every variety of student talent. (RK)

Most schools and teachers cannot provide the kind of teaching the new standards demand because they lack know-how and organizational support. The policy challenge ahead is to develop schools' capacity to teach challenging content to diverse learners by ensuring teachers' access to knowledge they need to be effective and by developing new…

Examines five main directions and solutions for the development and delivery of middle level education in New Zealand: (1) intermediate schools becoming middle schools; (2) stand alone four-year middle schools; (3) middle school- within-a-larger school; (4) interschool cooperation; and (5) middle level approaches and methods implemented in…

Argues that, although few teachers initially understand or trust year-round scheduling, it is a concept that can work well. Provides some options for building and maintaining music programs in school systems that operate on year-round schedules. (DB)

Children spend more time in school than in any social institution outside the home. And schools probably exert more influence on children's development and life chances than any environment beyond the home and neighbourhood. The purpose of this book is to document some important ways schools influence children's development and to describe various…

The effects of large-scale improvement projects and the trend toward decentralization on the principal's role in primary and secondary schools in Belgium are explored in this paper. Particular focuses are on the ways in which sociopolitical change influences the nature of school-level leadership and on strategies that principals use in response to…

Suggests that two main areas, where an understanding of the interrelations of political and pedagogical concerns is the key to present debates over the thrust of educational social policy, are those of resource allocation and school system organization. (Author/AM)

Eleven country reports and five special articles, contributed by educators who have been associated with the planning of education in their countries, are presented. In analyzing their experiences, educators not only pinpoint organizational and procedural shortcomings from which educational planning has suffered in Asia, but also highlight what…