Control of mass communication information has become a matter of increasing concern in scholarly circles. The emphasis by UNESCO in recent years on national communication policies is related to this concern. One important justification offered for focusing attention on communication policies has been their impact on development efforts. Certain…

An examination of the relevant literature reveals that "policy" means different things to different people. Among the concepts that emerge when these meanings are reviewed are that policies are intentional, decision-based, goal-oriented, and conditional; they lead to results, balance facts and values, and allocate resources; and they…

This paper reviews and discusses political models that bear on policy-making processes. The first part of the report deals with the merits of the "elitist" versus the "pluralistic" frameworks used to analyze the exercise of power in local communities. This review of the theories serves as a basis for a subsequent discussion of…

Empowering grassroots efforts in literacy is paramount in the literacy education movement. Six issues face literacy work, research, and policy in the United States today: (1) although there are many exciting and innovative literacy projects being conducted, their lessons are unexamined and they are not part of a larger organizing strategy; (2)…

Although education, as an activity mandated, sponsored, and supervised by the capitalist state, is as much an apparatus of the state as any other state agency, it is far more democratic, open to change and innovation, and subject to potential community control than any other state apparatus. To understand education's function in a capitalist…

Drawing largely on data from Los Angeles, but with reference to other cities where appropriate, this paper attempts to clarify the distinctive positions taken by advocates of community control as opposed to proponents of administrative decentralization. While community control is essentially a political demand, oriented toward citizens influencing…

This paper proposes that local public schools assume the locus of responsibility for providing comprehensive health and mental health services for children and their families. Among the advantages of school based delivery systems are the universality of public education, the availability of physical and human resources, established funding…

The crucial elements of control which have developed in the educational systems of the U.S. are: (1) the collective social power of government to require participation in formal education and to stipulate the conditions of that participation (i.e., legal control); (2) the authority to make and the power to enforce decisions that appropriate…

This paper examines whether suburban communities can provide any useful conceptual tools for the examination of the prospects for community control in cities. Several propositions are advanced: First it is argued that the relevance of suburban community control to the poor in the cities is not diminished by the finding that those of high social…

The paper demonstrated the need for American Indian involvement in the education policies affecting Indian children in Alaska. It analyzed the method that the State of Alaska used to fund schools for native children and the administration of the Johnson-O'Malley (JOM) Program by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). Alaska is in a unique educational…

This paper examines the determinants of systemic education reform in the American states. Socioeconomic, political, and cultural variables are all found to affect the level of systemic education policy in each state. Unlike many studies of policy determinants, urbanization is negatively associated with this particular policy. The political factors…

A study was conducted to examine current concepts and procedures of community college governance in the United States and the United Kingdom. Agendas and minutes of board meetings were analyzed and interviews were conducted with administrators and board members at four institutions, one rural and one urban from each country. The participating…

Inviting policy development is an attempt to cordially summon those who are involved and affected by rules, codes, and procedures to understand and participate in the formulation, implementation, and evaluation of policies. This paper first presents criteria for an invitational framework for policy development and then goes on to discuss the…

To explore the issue of local control over public education, five major questions have been identified and followed by responses from a variety of sources that depict existing conflicts and diversity in opinion. The responses illustrate that resolutions of the local control problems are uncertain, not due to lack of direction by participants, but…

The paper presents a detailed overview of educational policymaking and discusses the need for minority groups to be involved in policy formation. The first section describes the distinguishing characteristics of the main elements of the functions of administration and policymaking process. The second section examines the following three models of…