A critical and comparative study of recent changes in the New Zealand educational system is provided in this book. These changes have been largely inspired by the New Right, yet they have been introduced by a Labor government with an apparent commitment to equality of opportunity. For Western societies impacted by New Right policies the New…

It was the Indian political leader G. K. Gokhale who described "The Report of the Indian Education Commission 1882-83" as "one of the weightiest and most interesting documents ever published in India." Long recognized as one of the most informative documents about the history of nineteenth century education in British India it…

A 1986 study was designed to obtain feedback from members of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) of the Province of Manitoba on the information they receive from the University of Manitoba and ways in which the university could keep them better informed. Interviews were done with 47 of the 57 MLAs. Findings indicated the following: the University of…

During the 1988-89 school year, two local school districts were placed into "Phase III" of the Kentucky Educational Improvement Act (1978), a category of state receivership in which much local decision-making power was transferred to Kentucky Department of Education officials. When state education department intervention occurs, major…

The financial restraint of the last 3 years and the related rhetoric of accountability, productivity, cost effectiveness, and retrenchment have introduced new levels of trauma into the educational scene in British Columbia, exercising a particularly powerful impact on the community college sector. In a financial context that requires governments…

In the course of developing and passing the South Carolina Education Improvement Act of 1984, those behind the legislative effort observed that several factors affect successful educational reform. First, reform must be comprehensive. The 1984 act has provisions relating to academic standards, basic skills, instructional improvement,…

An overview of the development of educational policy in Kiribati, a Pacific island nation, is presented in this paper. The decade of the 1970s was a period of tension between educators, economists, planners, parents, and politicians. These sectors interacted in shaping educational policy regarding government's financial responsibility for primary…

None of the current issues in education have much to do with education; they are politically, socially, or economically based, and opinions tend to be presented as facts. For example illiteracy statistics are inflated. Virtually all children have the opportunity to learn to read and write at school, and the majority of them do. Neither is the…

Following a brief section on definitions of politics, political systems, and educational policy, the article reviews major systems for thinking specifically about adult learning: continuing, recurrent and nonformal education, and lifelong learning as related but distinct concepts, and the question of central control by national government.…

Discusses the political battles over federal support of education in the Congress since Reagan's election to the Presidency, including the reaction to the impact of the report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education. Contrasts the activities and attitudes of Reagan and Kentucky's late Democratic Congressman Carl Perkins. (PGD)

Examines some of the mechanisms whereby the state utilizes the schools to disseminate the ideology of state capitalism. Focuses particularly on the way influential foundations, often in conjunction with government agencies, have sponsored surveys on the direction American schooling should take. (Author/RDN)

Reviews the development of composition research and suggests ways to forestall minimum competency policies in writing instruction. (AEA)

This document provides an overview of primary, cross-cutting issues that are likely to arise as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; Goals 2000; the Educational Research, Development, Dissemination, and Improvement Act; and the National Education Statistics Act are considered by the United States Congress for reauthorization in the future.…

The Chinese conception of life's values is so different from that of western peoples that they have failed to develop modern technique and scientific knowledge. Now that they have come to see the value of these, rapid and fundamental changes are taking place. When modern scientific knowledge is added to the skill which the Chinese already have in…

During 1989-90, British Columbia implemented a dual-entry kindergarten program based on developmental readiness. The program failed because developmental readiness was difficult to measure, random entries were the rule, and a compromise solution proved unsatisfactory. Acting out of a principled desire to serve children could not squelch rational,…