This study applied quantitative research methods by employing a descriptive research design to collect data from Members of the House of the 111th Tennessee General Assembly regarding their use and perceived importance of information sources to detect the existence of potential controversy or areas of disagreement within the member's environment…

This report seeks to confront the contemporary political challenge to the academic community by exploring how free universities contribute to the common good even as they create political tensions between themselves and society that require the protection of academic freedom. At the same time, the report suggests ways that protection may be…

A study investigated whether reliance on television rather than on newspapers affected the way people made voting decisions. Specifically, it focused on whether television reliance was associated with greater candidate image evaluation and newspaper reliance with greater issue importance in the prediction of voter preferences. Telephone interviews…

An examination of the political context of adult education at a pragmatic level is presented. Topics include: four levels of decision making (employment of staff, program planning, student selection, and tutor and student relationship); less controversial areas; political neutrality; and politics and policy. (LH)

Finds little interaction between political information level, strength of party identification, and voting defection (not voting according to the "party line"). Concludes that the decision to defect from party affiliation is largely related to the specific issues in a political campaign. (RL)

Based on a case study of the formulation and enactment of the Education Amendments of 1972, an analysis of the federal policy-making process for higher education is presented to provide the academic community a realistic perspective on federal action. Includes discussion of the policy arena, sources of policy options, and pluralistic…

Rather than accept present theoretical approaches to the study of community political power as a basis for developing new theory, this monograph examines the saliency of the approaches themselves. By considering what kinds of data and questions are excluded by Hunter's "repute analysis" technique and Dahl's "issue analysis"…

Up until now Hispanics have not gotten involved in the policy analysis field. By learning to specifically assess the actual or potential impact of alternate policies or programs, it will be possible to help decision makers adopt policies which are more equitable to Hispanics. The following steps may help an individual carry out policy analysis:…

This study examines the responsiveness of the Israeli National Educational Policy-Making System (NEPS) to public demands for more civic education during the crisis period of 1973-75. Based on Easton's general theory, the author describes the political situation in terms of wants, demands, support, and regulation and observes NEPS output results.…

All educational evaluations share common problems, perplexities, and political considerations. Logistic problems include incomplete definition of purpose, unclear timelines and personnel allocations, inadequate support services, and the lack of a program plan. Interpersonal dynamics and conflicts plus unwieldy committee structures are perplexities…

In this paper, social science utilization is studied as an aspect of legislative decision making. The purposes of the paper are to provide a review of political science literature on state legislatures, offer a theoretical framework for interpreting utilization of social science research, apply the framework to interview data, and generate a…

This case study of the Early Childhood Education Program (California) focuses on the political meaning of evaluation. It shows how analysis of evaluation politics reveals who controls education policy, which values are prevailing and dominant, and which definitions of policy goals constitute the assumptive world. (RDN)

A pilot study was designed to explore the nature of pressure groups interested in education and to determine characteristics common to those groups. Background material is presented covering the history of pressure groups in the U.S., the social structure in which pressure groups must operate, and the role of pressure groups in the decision-making…

This book closely examines the functioning of the Education Committee of the Sixth Illinois Constitutional Convention. As an administrative assistant to the committee throughout the convention, the author was able to gather detailed information about the committee's activities through personal observation and interviews with committee members.…

An analysis of the political process by which school systems can be desegregated rests on thepremise that school desegregation is a community decision. The process is documented in Part I by studies of eight non-Southern, big city school systems. Part II presents an analysis of school policy-making. Part III is devoted to desegregation in New…