Designed to accompany and supplement the notebook "Resources for Teaching Virginia Government," this quarterly newsletter presents ideas, teaching strategies, and materials for government teachers and students. Issue No. 1 includes: (1) "The Gubernatorial Tenure Debate"; (2) "The Robb Years: An Interview with Larry…

This paper looks at state-level reform efforts during the past decade, focusing particularly on teacher competency assessment policies. Six questions were addressed: (1) How restrictive are state policies beyond coursework for entering the teaching profession? (2) How do states vary on restrictions for entry to the teaching profession? (3) Are…

This report examines the participation of teacher unions in the education reform process. It analyzes the many roles that these organizations are playing at the national, state, and local levels through collective bargaining and political action. The focus is upon three major issues: (1) the extent to which teacher unions have attained more…

A discussion of school law, defined as how the educational system is impacted upon by the law, is addressed as it relates two major issues to the Catholic or parochial schools. In an overview of the legal system, the types of courts, the nature of legal precedents, and the levels within the judiciary are reviewed. The first major issue centers…

Positive school-media relations are essential if schools are to expect an "understanding press" during crucial periods. Recommendations for developing and maintaining such relations fall into 10 areas, including school boards' establishing a firm media relations policy, appointing a board spokesman, creating a "game plan" for media dealings, and…

Designed for teachers of undergraduate students with some familiarity with political theory, moral philosophy, and social history, this course outline focuses on individual rights and their realization in the United States and the world at large. The syllabus, arranged in 3 major parts, is subdivided into 16 sections that outline major course…

Research based on followup interviews with some "key actors" at the federal level about the most significant recent events in education identified five topics: the cutbacks in federal education spending, the deregulation and decentralization embodied in provisions of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act (ECIA), proposed and de…

This issue summarizes study findings on how education agencies in California, Nevada, and Utah are responding to federal cutbacks, consolidation, and deregulation. Using the term "school improvement" to refer to a wide variety of activities and services, negative factors identified by the researchers include: elimination of many…

This book comprises part I of the eighty-seventh annual yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education. Focusing on the theme of critical issues in curriculum, this volume consists of 12 articles by different authors. The first four articles focus on issues of professionalism: "Curriculum Issues in Historical Perspective" by…

In this report on leadership in the public schools, Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton demonstrates how to make schools better places for learning and to encourage more of it. A brief biography of Clinton is presented in the beginning. The report represents a new generation of thinking on school leadership in that it emphasizes the leadership…

Current and exemplary teaching practices in the politics of education are analyzed and documented. The booklet is comprised of five different articles: "The Politics of Education in the Curriculum of Educational Administration" (Donald H. Layton); "Teaching Politics of Education Course: Content and Topics" (Jay D. Scribner); "What Our Students…

One method of dramatizing the constant state of crisis management in developing countries is to have students in introductory college comparative political science classes study India's political system, which is under stress because of regional, linguistic, and cultural pluralism. This paper, a result of the 1987 Fulbright Summer Seminar to…

To investigate whether students taking the same courses in different high schools receive comparable instruction, research was conducted in sophomore, college-preparatory classrooms in two schools (one upper middle class and suburban, the other working class and inner-city) in one California school district. At the upper middle class school, it…

One of the major activities of the Urban Literacy Network (ULN) is a grants program aimed at supporting cooperative, collaborative approaches to developing resources and support systems for literacy in urban areas. Eleven grants were awarded in 1987-1988 in the following urban areas: Boston; Chicago; Denver; El Paso; Houston; Nashville; Oklahoma…

This handbook is designed for adults who left school at minimum leaving age with few or no qualifications and are returning to education many years later. Its focus is on a particular course in history, politics, and economics offered to students in Liverpool, England. The handbook is intended for use as the basis for group work, not for…