The author believes a cold war ideology permeates our culture and poisons the minds of youth. The challenge to education is to awaken people to a historical and global perspective and raise public consciousness of the necessity for peace. (MD)

The author of this article states that, for more than 20 years, public educators have developed a professional inferiority complex and a strong sense of hopelessness. After all, he claims, the dominant message over those years, including from some within the profession, has been that educators have caused the declining quality in public schools.…

The president of the National Education Association (NEA) responds to Chester Finn's article (EA 518 431, this issue) by pointing out patterns of inaccuracy and misrepresentation in Finn's criticisms of the NEA. (MD)

A model presidential nominating convention gathered 4,000 students from three states in May 1984 and selected Gary Hart as the Democratic nominee. Preconvention training prepares students to run the convention themselves while learning the political process in action. (MD)

Terrel Bell, U.S. Secretary of Education during four years of the Reagan Administration, describes the political forces under which he ran the Department of Education. He points out that education passed through two difficult years during Reagan's first term, but that education fared better at the federal level after the release of "A Nation…

To cope with declining high school enrollments, administrators can find new clients, programs, and functions or can cut back by dropping "frills" or closing schools. Guidelines for cuts include three approaches: the rational, cutting the least effective programs; the political, acknowledging political realities; and the symbolic,…

Despite commission reports and journal articles advocating mastery learning and effective instruction, grassroots influence is conspicuously missing from the current reform movement. Creative teachers continue to leave the profession, and top students refuse to enter it. Teachers remain essentially powerless, while open education enthusiasts await…

Reviews the history of the two teachers' unions, presenting the differences and rivalry between the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. Details their differing responses to the current "excellence" movement. (MD)

The increasing use of test results as a mechanism of educational reform is diminishing local control of schools and changing the curriculum to train students to pass tests rather than to educate students. (MLF)

Examines the reasons for test-centered educational reform and suggests that this has lead to decreased reliance on professional judgment and increased state regulations. Predicts that the operation of the schools as organizations will continue to be affected by the increased reliance on technical evidence. (MLF)

"Time for Results: the Governors' 1991 Report on Education" provides new perspectives for educators tackling school improvement agendas. The nation's governors divided into seven task forces to examine school readiness, facilities, teaching, leadership, educational technology, college quality, parent involvement and school choice and…