One purpose of this paper is to suggest appropriate policy options for investment in education. While the discussion of issues and options is based on the research literature, field observations, and interviews, this is not a review of the state of the art. It is an attempt to define and focus the debate on investment choices. Section 1 of the…

Documents opinions of educators in Quebec, Canada, on Bill 101, which made French the official language of instruction in the province. Describes educational situations, practices, and programs that pertain to language and to education for Protestants, Catholics, other religious groups, minority groups, and the disadvantaged. (MJL)

By means of a case study of the Saint Louis, Missouri school desegregation and reorganization program, administrative procedures for avoiding desegregation or creating an appearance of compliance are discussed. The strategies used include public relations, inbreeding of staff, coopting and/or dividing citizen action, and stalling for time. (MH)

One of a series of studies related to the Delphi research project: "Policy Instruments for Higher Education in the Western Europe of the Future", this paper presents material for the discussion and formulation of a European higher education policy in light of the single market introduction in 1992. The first chapter, "Hypothesis and…

Changes in educational policy concerning the teaching of English as a foreign language (EFL) in Ireland, and events surrounding those changes, are chronicled. The evolution of public agencies and private organizations, including teacher associations, and their roles in effecting change are described. Pressures leading to the formal announcement in…

The basic premise of the book, "Demographic Factors in Adult and Continuing Education," (on which this keynote address is based) is that adult and continuing education are irrelevant, immaterial, and inconsequential unless grounded in social reality. The book identifies more than 1 million demographic factors in the 8 Mountain Plains…

This report examines the process through which the Minnesota state government established school policy during the 1970s. The analysis focuses on who shaped state school policy and how they did it. The data come in part from personal interviews to determine the perceptions key participants had of the state school policy system. These interview…

Papers and summaries of discussions from an international seminar on higher education in Southeast Asia in the next decade are presented. The seminar had the following three principal objectives: (1) to critically examine the state of higher education in Southeast Asia against socioeconomic and political realities; (2) to discuss problems and…

The report, based on a six-month study as a participant-observer, discusses developments now under way in West Germany's Adult Education Centers movement. The article offers a comparative approach that takes account of trends in Europe and North America. It puts these developments into a philosophical framework, noting that Germany may provide a…

This study explores broad alternative policies on urban school facilities and education rather than attempting to design the "best" policy. The study also provides a broad perspective within which to place school construction decisions by analyzing goals, stakeholders' positions, and implementation actions. The main portion of the study highlights…

This case study describes and interprets the process through which State-level policy decisions are made for the public schools of Texas. The report begins with brief treatments of the socioeconomic environment and political culture within which education takes place. State governmental arrangements for public school policy are described, and four…

This collection of essays is authored by social scientists who are concerned primarily with relationships between academic knowledge and political power, rethinking the traditional view of politics and science as mutually exclusive fields of study. Chapters are organized into three parts: "Introduction"; "The Institutional Politics of Knowledge…

Increasingly, foundations are choosing to engage in public policy debates as a way of leveraging their investments and increasing their impact in advancing improvements community-wide, statewide or nationally. For foundations, influencing public policy decisions can happen in different ways: funding policy research and dissemination, building…

The November 1996 national election pits different education philosophies against each other; republicans want more local control, fewer rules, and greater school choice, while democrats talk of more federal funding while balancing the budget. The future of the Higher Education Act, African American influence in Congress, education committee…

Maintains that economic pressure and military incursions supported by the United States have resulted in draconian cuts in special education services in Nicaragua. Prior to 1979, special education was extremely expensive. A UNICEF program, financed by the Swedish government, provides limited but effective support. (MJP)