Five new realities affect community problem solving: (1) fewer public dollars; (2) increased local/regional responsibility; (3) renewed focus on local government integrity; (4) wider distribution of community power; and (5) increasingly diverse population. Communities that prosper practice collaborative problem solving and consensus-based decision…

Examines concepts and ideas behind the practice of distance education, including commercialization; the role of public institutions and private sector firms; a vision to open the process of learning to new possibilities; and barriers to distance education, including legal, administrative, and financial. (LRW)

Discuss advantages and disadvantages of the privatization of public schools, including for-profit companies and charter schools. (PKP)

Suggests that our combined public, private, corporate, and proprietary system of postsecondary education can be best understood as a complex interaction of various types of markets, governmental policies, disciplinary associations, and institutional actors. Proposes a model for explaining how these factors interact to form the "system" of American…

Discussion of leadership development in the nation's institutions of higher education considers the need for a different kind of leadership in a changing nation; new opportunities for leadership particularly in the emerging nongovernmental public sector; increasingly widespread recognition that leaders are developed, not born; and demonstrated…

Describes partnership between public and private sectors to build an elementary school in Abbotsford, British Columbia, including the context, the participants, the school, special features of the partnership, the financing, the nature of the relationship, an evaluation by the major partners, and lessons learned and questions raised. Includes five…

Since its publication in 1983, "A Nation at Risk" has caused several waves and ripples of educational reform. This article puts that report in the context of earlier responses to perceived education crises. One such important response was from the private sector: the New American Schools Development Corporation (NAS). NAS attempted to create,…

The last five years have seen a significant increase in the involvement of the private sector in the core areas of education delivery and not just in the provision of educational support services. This growing involvement of the private sector in education has been commented on in the press and in debates on education, but it is often…

Educational discourse in Australia has been dramatically altered in recent decades as neoliberal choice policies favouring an increasingly marketized, tiered educational landscape have witnessed a burgeoning of private sector schooling. In this climate, many perceive private sector schooling as providing moral, social and academic benefits beyond…

Ensuring that every child grows up with a strong education is a deeply rooted American value. Over time, however, the basic preparation that American students need to succeed in the world has changed. Now, with a competitive global economy and the importance of technology in the fields of health, energy, and engineering, the United States must…

Pay for performance is a popular public education reform, and millions of dollars are currently being targeted for pay for performance programs. These reforms are popular because economic and management theories suggest that well-designed incentive pay programs could improve teacher effectiveness. There is little evidence about the characteristics…

New Labour promised to introduce dramatic reforms to the education system when it came to power in 1997 and one of the key strategies it employed in the pursuit of educational improvement was the utilisation of the methods of the private sector. Arguably its most controversial policy was its effective privatisation of the functions of "failing"…

This paper presents the findings from a research study of one large public sector organisation's strategy to promote gender equality and family friendliness. An examination was made of the organisation's policy documentation in this area and a questionnaire survey containing both closed and open-ended questions was undertaken across all staff in…

Interviews with managers and lecturers at a British further education college that had experienced a change in governance found the rise of a "new managerialism." Lecturers opposed this style and its values, perceiving a threat to the professional culture of further education. (SK)

Public-sector management teams and their counterpart labor unions are faced with an ever-increasing myriad of challenges in the quest to produce collective bargaining agreements. Shrinking tax bases, declining levels of federal and state assistance, and public demands for downsizing and privatization are all factors that suggest that financial…