School desegregation court cases provided the impetus to early experimental efforts at government takeover of public schools. Most recently, states have taken over school districts for failure to demonstrate adequate academic progress (educational bankruptcy). North Carolina's ABC program is profiled. Legal, financial, and organizational…

A study explored constraints experienced by policy researchers working for the National Commission on Student Assistance, founded in 1980 to investigate federal student-aid policy. It analyzed how political changes limited the scope of research questions, influenced reporting of results, and reduced effects of research on policymaking. Findings…

In 1969 after an intense political campaign, three Mexican Americans won seats on the board of trustees of the Cucamonga (California) School District--the Chicano Movement's first successful effort at community control of a school board. Political organizing strategies, community-initiated self-help projects, the new board's educational reforms,…

Examines factors influencing the development of educational policies and practices intended to ameliorate racial achievement gaps in relatively affluent school districts, describing initiatives undertaken by Minority Student Achievement Network schools. A longitudinal study of one high school illustrates how racial disparities are influenced by…

Reports that for centuries French language ideology has elaborated various types of discourses in order to establish linguistic dominance and hierarchy. Asserts that if these discourses could be recognized as a recursive prototype, counter-strategies could be developed to combat linguistic dominance, wherever it may be found. (Contains 30…

States that, for more than four centuries, Cyprus has employed both Turkish and Greek as its two main languages. Suggests that the island's lack of policies regarding bilingualism has weakened relations between these two cultural groups, and that the introduction of English makes their assimilation even more difficult. (Contains 19 references.)…

Examines the implications for education of a national language policy in South Africa, a region whose constitution recognizes 11 official languages. Argues that African languages must be used in the business of government if they are to remain viable as languages of instruction in schools. (Contains 13 references.) (NB)

Examines how the University of California has addressed the problem of differential access for minorities and longstanding inconsistencies between its admissions practices and mission. Argues that the university's recent retreat from affirmative action signals a departure from its earlier emphasis on providing greater access to higher education…

This paper utilises some of Foucault's notions to explore the use of the "disciplinary technologies" of film/video in social guidance programmes in schools to shape, constitute and control the morality of youth. As the first section elaborates, for Foucault, "technology" is the actual practice of power that involves "the government of individuals,…

This book develops the notion of "knowledge cultures" as a basis for understanding the possibilities of education and development in the age of knowledge Capitalism. "Knowledge cultures" point to the significance of cultural preconditions in the new production of knowledge and how they are based on shared practices, embodying…

This article is about policy decision making and racial politics in the St. Louis, Missouri, school district. From a research standpoint, traditional policymaking models are inadequate for explaining the evolution of school reform events in St. Louis over the past year. Teachers, principals, school staff, and parents perceive themselves to be…

China has a rich educational history dating back more than three thousand years, but women did not become part of the mainstream education system until the last sixty years. The Confucian ideology, which has been deeply rooted throughout Chinese history, confined females to an oppressed social status. Moreover, this historical ideology continues…

The fight over school funding in most states involves a long battle in the courts that may span several years and never have a definitive endpoint because resistance to adequate funding of public schools appears to be endemic to government processes. The "DeRolph" case, first filed by the plaintiffs in December 1991, is one such legal…

In recent decades, educational and curricular reforms worldwide have been designed with the goal of preparing citizens for the challenges of globalization. Globalization has been thought to require the broadening of children's occupational perspectives beyond conventional geopolitical borders and cultures. And this requirement has led to doubts…

Conservative critiques of higher education rely on liberal doses of cash. Behind the conservative critique of U.S. higher education is a fervent commitment to ideals, to be sure--but there's also a sizable amount of conservative cash. The Bradley, Earhart, Castle Rock, and John M. Olin foundations have contributed lavishly to guidebooks aimed at…