The performance funding approach mandated by the Texas state legislature and devised by the higher education coordinating board to appropriate resources to colleges and universities is explained, and the responses of institutions to it are discussed. Focus is on problems encountered and lessons learned. (MSE)

Fundamental tensions between the traditional notion of educational quality, the ideal of cultural pluralism, and public policy are examined in the context of higher education. The responsibility of the university and the academic profession to take a part in resolving those tensions through constructive change is discussed. (MSE)

Discusses ideological contradictions in the philosophy of internationalization supported by Japan's National Council on Educational Reform and the political contradictions inherent in Ministry of Education implementation efforts. Provides examples of attempts by Japanese high schools to internationalize their curricula and reintegrate students…

Neglect of divergent cultural values and belief systems; perennial debates about moral, ethical, and legal questions; power struggles; and technically oriented initiatives have thwarted school-reform efforts. Initiating frequent policy changes to accommodate fads overlooks the slowness of change and the learning process in complex social…

An examination of the debate over affirmative action policies in higher education finds that increasingly, conservative black scholars are opposing continuation of affirmative action. In addition, the movement is gaining credibility through the activities of conservative academic groups such as the National Association of Scholars. These groups…

Few analyses have examined what testing's political status means for how those outside the education establishment view externally mandated tests and what they expect them to accomplish. This article provides such an analysis by first elaborating on the notion that testing and accountability have become political issues. It then describes the…

This article discusses the social anarchist tradition of educational thought and practice, in order to throw new light on the philosophical discussion of the liberal-vocational distinction. Focusing on the central anarchist idea of integral education, I argue that the political stance of social anarchism is inseparable from the educational ideas…

This book surveys major trends in the politics of education over the last 25 years. Chapters synthesize political and policy developments at local, national, and state levels in the United States, as well as in the international arena. The chapters examine the emerging micropolitics of education and policy-analysis, cultural, and feminist studies.…

This report presents a panel discussion at which participants discussed the question of political correctness and what the debate shows about what is happening to higher education in the United States and what it suggests about the relationship of higher education to current events in this country, to the world, and to the students who attend.…

The purpose of this paper is to offer an alternative explanation of why the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, and educational research in general, has such a low status and its connection to education reform is so remote. Emphasis placed on the differences that divide reformers, researchers, and educators instead of similarities that…

This paper examines proposals to integrate regular and special education. It offers an overview of pertinent regular and special education-reform efforts, discusses recommendations for unified schools that include all students, and reviews literature on political culture theory. Elazar's (1966) theory of political culture is used as a framework…

The formation of hypotheses and generation of a theory to explain and predict the outcomes of educational reforms based on the concept of school reform cycles is the purpose of this paper. Two complementary hypotheses are proposed to explain the success or failure of educational reforms. The first hypothesis is based on an inverse relationship…

This case study documents how the school board of the city of New Rochelle, New York, handled change when it transmuted from being appointed to being elected. Local policy implications undergird such a transition. Specifically, a review of political influences and outcomes on school board policy and how the board and the city's politicians coped…

This study is a history of the societal-problems approach in social studies education as revealed in secondary school social studies textbooks used in Problems of Democracy courses from 1895 to 1985. The central thesis is that the definition of the problems approach and the problems selected for study by educators as illustrated by the textbooks…

This case study of the Early Childhood Education Program (California) focuses on the political meaning of evaluation. It shows how analysis of evaluation politics reveals who controls education policy, which values are prevailing and dominant, and which definitions of policy goals constitute the assumptive world. (RDN)