The findings from part 1 of the seventh annual American School Board Journal survey of school board members are reported. Board members listed their 14 most pressing concerns, with lack of financial support foremost; other concerns are listed by region, in order of the percentage who expressed each concern. (TE)

Details how England is reworking its secondary school examination system, replacing the GCE and the CSE with one examination system. (CRH)

Focusing on "interpreting speaker/hearers" as a method to show how classroom discourse facilitates or fetters education, the author suggests that the key issue is the type of elicitation a question might apprear to be to students. (MD)

British comprehensive schools have been criticized by the left for failing to provide equality for everyone and by the right for sacrificing academic standards for equality. Such simultaneous criticisms suggest that the schools have been assigned either impossible or contradictory objectives, but have managed to achieve a reasonable compromise.…

Three studies which examine the academic achievement of secondary students in British comprehensive schools as compared to their achievement in selective schools are critiqued. Research problems found in each of the studies are examined. (RM)

Results of a study on the status of basic instruction show that physical education remains a viable part of the general education curriculum at the higher education level. Although diminished resources influence selection of course offerings, the curriculum is structured by the need and interests of the community. (DF)

The author criticizes the trend in American education to establish performance-based behavioral objectives. The objectives become a means for teacher accountability thus fostering teaching for a test and destroying teacher creativity. Curricula are strangled by objectives, performances, and tests imposed by administrators. (MR)

A tentative prescription to remedy apparent academic deficiencies in American students and adults related to their knowledge of the world around them and fundamental skills: More emphasis on simple computation, solving percentage and consumer problems, coherence and ability to develop ideas. (EB)

This article summarizes the issues confronting environmental education planners. The major problems are lack of comprehensive planning and effective leadership, failure to analyze causes of problems and to develop constructive action to provide solutions, and shortage of valid and reliable instruments to measure program effectiveness. (MR)

This statewide study attempted to survey secondary environmental education programs concerning content areas, student evaluation, teaching strategies, teacher-training, and objectives. The Colorado survey was compared to a national survey indicating similarities and areas for improvement. (MR)

Evidence is offered about the effectiveness of old as well as new approaches to instruction, plus a preview of likely approaches in the future. It is noted that institutions are adopting new approaches to instruction on an unprecedented scale. (Editor/LBH)

Preliminary findings of a study of 14,000 Australian children indicate that, at age 10, one child per class and at age 14, one child per 100 is totally unable to read. About one student in five needs remedial reading instruction, but only one student in ten is receiving remedial reading instruction. (SL)

Education is a complex issue and no sweeping generalizations about it can be made. It follows, therefore, that there can be no simple answer to the student test score decline question. (Editor) Aspect of National Assessment (NAEP) dealt with in this document: Results (Utilization).

Presented is the argument that educational innovation can be overdone, and that increased teacher efficiency does not necessarily relate to improved quality of teaching. (SL)