A study determined the extent of influence members of a city's business elite have on civil rights policy of the city's school system. The National Opinion Research Center interviewed the school superintendent, school board members, civil rights leaders, other political leaders, and members of the business elite in eight large cities. The study…

As part of a study of faculty characteristics and their influence on students, questionnaires covering a wide variety of faculty attitudes, values, and behaviors were sent to over 1500 professors at six diverse colleges and universities. For this report, data were drawn from those collected on faculty attitudes toward student participation in…

Two crucial processes are discussed: (1) that through which social problems become public issues; and (2) that through which conflicts between competing diagnoses of, and responses to, publicly recognized social problems are resolved. Regularities in these transformations are conceptualized as follows: groups differ in their definitions of social…

The development and outcomes of recent state efforts in California to limit adult education growth in the community colleges are examined. Although the resulting legislation curtailed further expansion of adult education, institutional pressure and continued public support prevented substantial reductions. (Author/LBH)

If President Carter is to revamp the federal bureaucracy, he is going to need a vast corpus of research on complex organizations. In this connection we should note the increase in the number of American Sociological Association members with competence in this area. The several departments of the executive branch will increasingly find that they…

The perspective of a legislative staff member regarding the utility of research concerning policy making is presented as well as recommendations about other useful areas of research. (CB)

Twenty socioeconomic, environmental, and political variables are examined regarding their relationships to state and local appropriations for 1960 and 1969. Comparative input-output policy analysis methodology and a new statistical approach combining correlation and regression analyses are utilized. (Editor/LBH)

In an interview, Professor David Cohen discusses the lack of political accountability of nonpublic institutions which influence education, such as the testing industry. Strategies for increasing citizen participation in educational policy formulation are also illustrated. (MH)

An abstract of a study to discover the political interaction leading to policy decisions for the management of underutilized school facilities, to determine the actual policies that resulted from those activities, and to investigate the satisfaction level of participants. (Author/MLF)

Reviews the meaning of "political ideology" in political science, reviews findings from the literature on local school districts, discusses implicit assumptions about political ideology made by these studies, and presents findings from a study of political ideologies among a sample of school board members, lay citizens, and professional educators.…

Argues that "we are moving toward the notion that the national policy-oriented evaluation may not ask a useful question--useful neither to the national policy-maker nor to the educator. On the other hand, the research question which seeks to understand the teaching/learning process (rather than to evaluate a program) may ultimately be the most…

The federal Hope Scholarship program, designed as a middle-class tax break, required substantial negotiation and diverse, often conflicting tactics to become policy. The story of the idea's creation and its journey to policy, based on interviews with over three dozen college officials, Clinton administration aides, lawmakers, and others is…

Believing they are threatened by the Education Department, which they consider unfriendly, officials of proprietary schools have made substantial campaign contributions over the past two years to shore up their support in Congress, just at the time lawmakers prepared to consider changes in student-aid rules that would be unfavorable to…

This article highlights the three sets of policy issues that particularly affect students with emotional and behavioral disorders: issues related to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; continued concerns with school discipline and safety; and the focus on accountability in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. (Contains references.)…