In the United States, decision-making in education is becoming laterally dispersed, involving the interaction of many more variables and many more people, groups, and agencies. It is also rising to higher levels of government, including the federal government. This is correlated with relatively new sources of financial support and with…

New and cheaper means of acquisition and distribution are giving individuals easier access to information. This has contributed to dissatisfaction with corporate governance and business management and is encouraging the growth of new types of interest groups that are seeking a voice in the private sector. This may lead to a reversal of the trend…

This literature review focuses on the role of schools'"common properties" in planned educational change and everyday school operations. Common properties include those features that are either present in all schools, relatively stable and unchanging, or central to the concept of schools today. The author first examines five ways in which…

Organizational frame analysis may provide a useful alternative to traditional organizational theory, which focuses on organizations as goal-meeting structures. According to Elkind, "frames are the set of implicit rules, expectancies, and understandings that regulate social behavior in repetitive situations." While frames are normally…

Social power is defined as the ability to affect group decisions; power actors are those individuals who seek and exercise power and affect group decisions. Power structure research was conducted in Kershaw County, South Carolina in 1971 and 1977. Although methodologies differed, both surveys identified and interviewed power actors for the county,…

Historical causes of rural poverty and general recommendations for work among rural youth in India, Malaysia, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Thailand are presented in this summary of national reports given before the Rural Youth Study Group in 1976. In addition to study papers on each country, the volume contains an introduction on rural youth and…

The recent growth and current status of the State of Washington's system of higher education are discussed. After a description of the institution's delivery of higher education services, Washington's social, cultural, and economic background are briefly considered. The prevailing governance structure is discussed in the context of a recent…

A tension exists between the goals of social education and the nature of the compulsory school system. Compulsory education was established late in the 19th century as a response to the trend toward an urban industrial society. The industrial world required workers who were punctual, attentive, and quiet; thus, compulsory education was seen as a…

A longitudinal sociological study was conducted on the impact of the implementation of the Bilingual Education Act and the Aspira consent decree in New York City. The study sought to develop a theoretical framework for analyzing the participation of the Puerto Rican community ln the implementation of the bilingual education policies. The question…

This monograph presents findings from an analysis of data on international conflict over a three-year period. Part of a large scale research project to test various theories with regard to their ability to analyze international relations, this monograph reports on the testing of relative status field theory on WEIS conflict data for 1966-1969 for…

The focus in this paper is on political styles, political organization, and political interaction among educational power persons and groups. Recent research studies by the authors have looked at teacher perceptions of their power over curriculum. Questionnaires and interviews were administered to a random sample of teachers in several Michigan…

The Status Equalization Project had as one of its goals the elimination of systematic white dominance on intellectual tasks in desegregated classrooms. The field experiment described in this report was designed to test the effectiveness of the Multiple Abilities Curriculum and Expectation Training in equalizing race relationships in such settings.…

Which model provides a more accurate picture of future job responsibilities and professional standing for middle-level administrators in colleges and universities: the robot, or the reinsman who has ability, courage, and control but stays in the background? Competing forces are described in this speech: the institution's desire for stability and…

Individuals in general and educators in particular should be knowledgeable about and understand the social implications of contingency and freedom. Contingency--a possible or unforeseen occurrence--is interpreted in light of the unpredictability of nature which insures that people cannot be prepared for every possibility. Freedom is interpreted as…

The compulsory system of education is criticized on the grounds that it has become a regimented "universal trap" antithetical to democracy. In contrast to the Jeffersonian concept of education in the service of citizen initiative for the preservation of freedom, current compulsory education is a tool of industrialism and of a rigidly stratified…