Amid controversies and budget difficulties and in a highly visible position, the African-American president of the State University of New York at Albany finds lessons for his current role in the diverse experiences of his past. One aim is to promote tolerance and diversity at all levels of the institution. (MSE)

Analysis of data from more than 1,600 residential facilities serving individuals with developmental disabilities revealed that real wages of direct care staff have declined significantly during the last decade, and the wage differential between public and private facilities (in favor of public facilities) has doubled during the past 10 years.…

In recent years, Trenton State College (New Jersey) has focused its efforts on providing quality undergraduate programs to reverse an outmigration of college students from the state. When it faced severe financial difficulties, the students actively supported a fee increase designed to help the institution maintain quality education. (Author/MSE)

Massachusetts's school-choice program has seen a significant flight of students and dollars from inadequately funded urban districts to wealthier suburban districts. Despite the Haverhill district's cutting-edge curriculum, many students have transferred because of school location and the district's racial composition. School choice is not a…

In Alberta, reductions in educational funding and a "back to basics" mentality have resulted in reduced support for outdoor and environmental education. Elementary/secondary programs have responded by taking the programs directly to the schools to avoid transportation costs, and by cutting the more adventurous programs. Postsecondary…

Outlines current practices and future trends for science education in Thailand. Advocates a change in the teacher's role to that of facilitator and the increased incorporation of technology and multimedia approaches to science education. (WRM)

Discusses the status and prospects of the government's stated policy promoting institutional autonomy in Russian higher education. Institutional operations are currently fraught with serious problems. At least three areas are in jeopardy: institutional financial sustainability, decentralized government control, and internal balance of power. (22…

Small countries should reexamine the question of educational leadership. Although the traditional, rationalist view of leadership served them well while emerging from colonial domination, a nonrational focus stressing cooperation and empowerment may be useful in tough times when reculturing seems so crucial. (23 references) (MLH)

An interview with Marie McDemmond, president of Norfolk State University (Virginia) and the first woman to head a Virginia public university, examines her response to the university's hidden fiscal crisis, her conception of shared leadership, her experience as a woman administrator, controversies over her spending choices, and administrative…

This article discusses factors that are creating fiscal stress in special education, including funding formulas which are inequitable, legal costs, limitations in funds allocated to hire instructional and administrative staff, costs for unending training needs, uncontrolled costs of nonpublic or private placements, specialized technology,…

The predominantly African American University of the District of Columbia is beset by a perennially shrinking budget, the city's severe financial problems, board pressure to increase tuition substantially, decreased degree output, weak political support, and competition from many private universities within the city. These may be compounded by…

This research evaluates the Stress Adjustment and Adaptation Model (double ABCX model) examining the effects resiliency resources on family functioning when families experience economic pressure. Families (N = 128) with incomes at or below the poverty line from a rural area of a southern state completed measures of perceived economic pressure,…

In this article, the authors discuss the problems of professional education. They state that, the source of these problems--the violation of the constitutional rights of citizens to obtain an education accessible to all; the commercialization of education; and the worsening of the financial, material, technical, and cadre support of the system of…

During the 1960s, many rural local governments were believed to provide inadequate government services, which hindered rural development. Rapid growth in government spending has reduced the incidence of government poverty from 78 percent of nonmetropolitan counties in 1962 to only 7 percent in 1987. Those counties still government-poor in 1987…

The Commission on Higher Education conducted a survey in 1995 of 495 member institutions of higher education, most in the Mid-Atlantic region, to determine their progress with outcomes assessment. Sixty-eight percent of the institutions responded, disclosing that: (1) more than half do not have an institution-wide plan for outcomes assessment…