It is essential that school board members understand the important role that public sentiment plays both in the management of the public schools and in the determination of legislated powers of local school boards. The 14 articles from the "Illinois School Board Journal" presented here were chosen for the light they shed on public…

A documentary collection of the experiences of Asian Americans from a multitude of perspectives, including a scholarly focus and also containing contemporary expressions, comprises "Roots: An Asian American Reader." The volume is said to be designed to meet the needs of Asian Americans by providing a compilation of materials in readily…

Presenting a 45/15 extended school year plan for one New Jersey elementary school, this study includes plans, strategies, and materials used to provide public information; surveys of community attitudes; and evaluation of a pilot project. The school year calendar, pupil and teacher schedules, teacher inservice, and problem issues are presented…

Discusses the failure of Joe Bob Briggs' parody of "We Are the World" in terms of the development of the communal sense that creates a set of group norms, which in turn create "phantom constraints" of which the parody's author may not be aware.(NKA)

Reports on a study conducted by a Baltimore County community college, which used the Community College Goals Inventory to determine and compare the views of administrators, faculty, students, community, and business/industry regarding the actual and desirable goals of the college. Emphasizes the importance of participative goal setting. (AYC)

One of the results of rural school district consolidation has been the potential for schisms that develop among the divergent populations with distinct traditions, culture, and customs. This paper presents research on an Appalachian school district that remains in cultural turmoil after 25 years of consolidation. The population of the three…

Developed and implemented through four regional educational laboratories, Experience-Based Career Education (EBCE) provides secondary students with an alternative education program combining academic learning, community resource career experiences, and life skill development. Program evaluation of data from sixteen pilot sites indicates that EBCE…

Three retired teachers reflect on their teaching careers, which began in one-room schools in Wisconsin, and discuss their reactions to changes involving the educational level and credentials of teachers, curriculum and technology, teacher expectations of students, and community expectations of teachers. Their positive attitudes challenge…

Between 1992 and 1996 the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) settled a number of legal cases involving housing authorities and agreed to take remedial action as part of court-enforced consent decrees entered into with plaintiffs. These housing authorities faced significant obstacles that impaired their ability to comply swiftly…

This report presents selected results of a national study of school districts operating at least one K-12 unit school. Of the 706 districts operating unit schools, 157 districts in 27 states responded to the survey. The majority of respondents (106) were superintendents of one-school districts, that is, districts in which the K-12 unit school was…

Following a brief introduction, chapter 1 of this study seeks to establish a framework for building stronger links between school and the workplace by calling attention to the need for (1) an ongoing analysis of the local economy in the context of the regional, national, and global economy; (2) a standing representative community consultation,…

This research-in-dialogue study ascertained the viewpoints of representatives of 31 groups of East Kimberley (Australia) Aboriginal people on education, their priorities as to what issues government should be addressing, and their suggested strategies for achieving a system of education which meets perceived needs of the remote Aboriginal…

The role of female educators in the Brazilian Amazon community of Itaituba (population in 1970: 12,690) has fallen short of that envisioned by the policymakers and social scientists in the early 1970s, as indicated by research conducted in 1976-77. Based on the "human capital" theory, better-trained local teachers were to train the local…

The history of school district consolidation in New York State reveals that nearly every set of recommendations which has encouraged consolidation has brought about widespread negative reaction from the public. Reorganization is a highly political activity in which members of the State Legislature and the State Education Department have always…

This is an ethnographic report on a poor, black-populated, inner city school that is considered effective in an environment where others are failing. The study sought to provide a qualitative account that would allow identifying what factors make for school success. Positive community perceptions of the school and data on student achievement…