This document is comprised of the three 2002 issues of a newsletter devoted to identifying and promoting strategies to reduce the poverty rate of young children and to improve the life chances of children still living in poverty. The Winter issue includes the following articles: (1) "NCCP [National Center for Children in Poverty] Responds to…

This "Special Focus" issue of "America's Family Support Magazine," focuses on parent leadership and family involvement. Articles pertaining to this focus include: (1) "Forging Equal Partnerships" (Ahsan); (2) "Who Best Represents the Voice of Parents?" (Foster); (3) "Parent Leadership Training…

Technological literacy has assumed a significant position on the national educational agenda. An analysis of technology and its potential to transform education is presented in this report. The text opens by delineating and discussing some of the more urgent questions schools confront as they consider investments in technology. These questions…

The quality of a school's learning climate determines its success or failure. The learning climate includes school atmosphere and leadership. Implementing school improvement programs is a process that involves the whole school community. Among other factors, program success is most likely when administrators and faculty develop plans tailored to…

Throughout all levels of American government, a shift is taking place from the rigid, wasteful, centralized bureaucracies of the industrial era to the more flexible, entrepreneurial, decentralized government needed to succeed in today's world. This shift has been brought about by an unprecedented, ongoing fiscal crisis that has created a sudden…

This study examined issues faced during implementation of school-based management (SBM) in New Jersey's special needs or Abbott districts, using a literature review, surveys of K-12 schools, and focus groups with central office administrators. The study examined forms of SBM, team operations, local autonomy versus state power, skills required to…

Rapid social change in American society calls for a flexible, self-correcting educational system. The view that achievement of such a system requires major changes in the organization and delivery of educational services and a redefinition of the entire system is examined in this educational policy bulletin. Highlights of reform research are…

Implementing shared decision making in school-based management requires fundamental changes in traditional behavior. Initiation of restructuring systemic authority and decision-making arrangements requires changing deeply held beliefs and developing new roles and relationships. A recent survey of educational practitioners identified eight major…

Findings of a survey conducted in 1989 to identify the difficulties facing educational practitioners when initiating shared decision making in school-based management are presented in this educational policy bulletin. The first of a two-issue report examined five of the eight major barriers to changing traditional behavior: fear of taking risks,…

The challenge of changing belief systems to engender educational change is explored in this bulletin, which asserts that the current American educational system inadequately prepares students for productive participation in a rapidly changing information-oriented society. Change in the United States culture implies that alterations in education…

A newsletter provides a discussion of 20 years of work by Sweden's Research on Higher Education Program. Information is presented as follows: growth to an autonomous research council; from contracted research to a research community; themes of the studies (focusing on higher education and society, the research function, the educational function of…

This precis focuses on research into the problem of school discipline. The school culture, or the atmosphere and tone of everything that happens in the school, is seen as having a significant influence on student behavior. Several examples of improving the culture of schools are given. Strategies for correcting misconduct are suggested, with…

This document contains four articles that provide research-based strategies to promote diversity in the higher education community. Diversity programming at many community colleges tends to be event-centered, whether those events are annual, such as Native American Awareness Month, or incidental, like responses to high-profile hate crimes.…

The three issues of this 1997 research brief provide information about institutional programming and planning at St. Petersburg Junior College (SPJC) (Florida). Brief number 1 summarizes the 1996 Enrolled Student Survey and contains sections on student demographics, student satisfaction ratings, and open-ended questions about academic and support…

The University of Oregon (UO) and Captain Robert Gray Elementary School formed a partnership where UO students used the elementary school as a case study for curriculum research. This document gives an overview of the 7-step process the students used to align the school's curriculum with Oregon's content and performance standards. The text opens…