This book discusses the controversy over the extent to which a nation's government has the right to determine the nature of the educational system, and the limits on that right. In Great Britain, the government has established a series of Education Acts and a National Curriculum. The concepts of accountability and cost effectiveness are commonly…

In response to widespread demands for better public education and for more choice among public schools, a number of state legislatures in the early 1990s permitted educators and local communities to develop "charter" schools. This report presents the first-year findings of the National Study of Charter Schools, sponsored by the U.S. Department of…

The Colorado Charter Schools Act requires the State Board of Education to compile the evaluations of charter schools received from local boards of education and to review information regarding waivers from state regulations and statutes. This document is a response to the mandate. The study focused on the 14 schools that had been operating for at…

This publication contains the proceedings of an international conference on academic freedom and university autonomy attended by 180 scholars and representatives from 30 countries. The conference's official statement, the Sinaia Statement, follows an introduction. The Statement calls for a new understanding between universities and society and a…

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…