This testimony on charter schools is based on a report prepared at the request of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and related agencies by the General Accounting Office. Remarks focus on charter schools' instructional innovations, autonomy, accountability systems, and the challenges they pose for federal programs.…

This paper reviews the definition and historical development of the Carnegie classification for Comprehensive Universities and Colleges I and II by referring to specific examples in each category. It then identifies several significant characteristics of these institutions, noting their historic underpinnings as teachers colleges. The paper next…

The strategies for school based management and shared decision making are seldom studied together. A written survey administered to practitioners currently using one or both of the strategies provides information for the implementation of shared decision making. Methodological limitations include a sample of 230 site personnel with a response rate…

This volume is part of a series of monographs from Australia devoted to outlining an alternative approach, based on neo-Marxist concepts, to policy studies in education. The opening essay in this volume is a historical analysis of federal involvement in Australian educational policy development. After a descriptive overview of the role of…

Statewide community college planning processes in Connecticut seek to solve the inherent conflict between accountability and institutional autonomy by splitting the responsibility for plan development between state agencies and the colleges. To ensure that the state plan intersected with the college's plans, a three-step process was used: (1)…

The future relationship between the government and higher education institutions in England is addressed in 10 papers from a Leverhulme seminar of the Society for Research into Higher Education. Major seminar themes included the role of the state in directing higher education, the need for institutional autonomy, the balance of powers between…

A case study examining the conflict between the University of Wisconsin (UW)-Madison and the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) over who has decision-making authority over the content of the teacher education program is presented. Factors leading to the exacerbated struggle between UW-Madison and DPI are examined, noting Easton's…

Virginia's distinctive political and legislative tradition makes its intergovernmental relations particularly challenging. Following the Dillon Rule, a 19th century legal doctrine that limits local governments to exercising only those powers specifically authorized by statue, Virginia is the only state that maintains an independent city system,…

Developments in several states suggest that a state-imposed accountability system is gradually taking shape. State authorities have established both incentive systems to reward high-performing school districts and systems of sanctions to be applied to districts with a record of repeated low performance. To accomplish this, a majority of states are…

This background paper examines the place of community colleges within the overall organization of postsecondary education and the means for governing these institutions in each of the western United States. First, introductory material defines institutional governance and the role it plays in defining the role and mission of community colleges.…

A survey conducted in 1983-84 of American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education member institutions sought information regarding teacher education policy and organizational/structural practices. Questionnaires contained four questions about institutional characteristics, and five questions about general organization for teacher education…

Chapter 4 of a volume on school leadership, this chapter is a revised version of the issue of "School Management Digest" entitled "School Based Management." It draws from the work of many authorities to define, explain, and make a case for school-based management, a system of educational administration in which the school is…

Citizen involvement in the education process and teachers' perceptions of such involvement as threatening to their professional autonomy are examined in this report. The principal has the potential to be a moderating variable in this relationship. Community involvement and participation may be viewed in the context of a continuum ranging from…

Guidelines for providing opportunities to qualified Canadians for employment at Canadian universities are presented. It is emphasized that to avoid governmental interference and possible regulation in this area, efforts should be made to inform Canadians of openings at Canadian Universities by means of advertisements in the "C.A.U.T.…

Patterns of governance in higher education have changed dramatically during the past quarter century and the trend will probably continue. Since the essential parts of institutional autonomy continue to be debated and vary from state to state, the following discussions were sponsored by the University of Arizona. The topics covered include:…