An attitude change campaign using an interpersonal and mass media strategy for agenda-setting could be used to elicit community understanding of child-abusing parents from a therapeutic rather than a punitive perspective, thereby improving the handling of this social problem. An outline of such a campaign would include phases of surveying the…

Educational assessment tools are used for accountability; selection and licensure, and to measure the effects of instruction for student diagnosis and treatment. Psychometric instruments currently in use are flawed in two ways: they attempt to rank people on fundamentally multidimensional traits, and the problem of the validity of these…

Most governmental or organizational efforts to influence the retirement decision have used financial incentives. The extent to which job attitudes are predictive of early retirement decisions beyond the predictions by income, health and demographic characteristics is an important consideration. Michigan Civil Service employees (N=379) who were…

The Pennsylvania School Improvement Program (PSIP) was created to assist local schools and school districts in the development of curriculum improvement strategies. The process involves the use of "linkers," curriculum specialists who work with teams from the local level to ascertain needs, then connect the local teams with the research…

This publication, part of the Professional Development series, presents an analysis of present and future needs for developing innovative approaches to professional staff development. Forces that have compelled fresh approaches for inservice program designs include: (1) equal education for women and minorities; (2) social and economic forces; (3)…

Appendix I presents national inventories and analyses of the problems, objectives, and instruments pertinent to the rural areas of 21 countries. Data, including land area, agricultural ratio, and report and map sources, are provided for Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland,…

The role of adult education in reducing inequalities and raising levels of professional qualifications and cultural standards is the subject of this series of five reports presented at a symposium on adult education and inequality. Discussions of the role of adult education's threefold perspective of literacy learning and general cultural…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a Maryland State Compensatory Reading Program at the middle school level. Specifically, the study attempted to determine the effects of silent reading practice on reading achievement and on student attitudes toward reading. Subjects were 74 sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students…

Since Canada and the U.S. share the common problem of declining enrollment, this paper studies the current situation in the States and assesses the merits and shortcomings of the nonheroic strategy being pursued there. The author credits the failure to develop a comprehensive, coherent plan in even one state to several factors, including the…

Anthropologists have indicated that the need to act politically and to avoid the appearance of such action is marked in egalitarian societies. The perils of confrontation in such societies often foster indirect and highly allusive speech. This paper invesitgates the relationship between direct and indirect speech in an Indo-Fijian community which…

A major cause of writing anxiety among graduate students is their previous academic success. Graduate students are also plagued by their multiple roles and ambiguous situations, the mixture of dependence and independence, and freedom and responsiblity--all of which create tensions and problems particular to their writing. Graduate schools can…

The Consumer Education Department, which has existed within the J.C. Penney Company for over fifty years, supports its stores in local communities by providing a service to educators. This service consists of both the development of original educational materials and the delivery of inservice programs to local educators. To continue to respond to…

Many studies, particularly the report of the International Commission for the Study of Communication Problems (ICSCP), have tried to define a new world information order for better human understanding. What appears to be needed is the establishment of a new, open-ended, conceptual framework leading to a freer, more efficient, more equitable,…

Based on the findings of an operations research project undertaken by the San Diego Community College District (SDCCD), this report presents recommendations for improving the organizational structure of SDCCD's payroll/operations department. The report first outlines 15 organizational and operations problems confronting the department as revealed…

An analysis of court cases and Equal Opportunity Employment Commission decisions was undertaken to highlight problems of Asian Indian academics who are involved in filing discrimination complaints. These data were supplemented by informal interviews with faculty members who have filed complaints. The analysis indicates that the academics must…