From a general overview presented of the current state of teacher education, proposals for improvement and development are suggested: (1) Teacher education should be the basis for the pulling together of the various mini-disciplines that now exist; (2) Teacher education associations should be merged into one influential organization; (3) Support…

Summaries are presented of nine papers on establishing links between colleges and school districts. The papers were presented at the 1981 summer workshop conducted by the Association of Teacher Educators. The papers focused upon: (1) How can staff development interface effectively with preservice teacher education? (2) What can university and…

Two strategies employed by school administrators to obtain compliance in public schools are examined in terms of their concrete expression in school rules regarding student behavior. Two kinds of rules are specified: comparative rules, which juxtapose some student behavior with an organizational response in an exchange relationship; and definitive…

The primary objective of the Stallings Classroom Management Staff Development Model is to help teachers change so that they can manage their classrooms more effectively. In this model, classroom observations and specific recommendations for teaching behaviors are made for each teacher, and a series of teacher training sessions helps them to change…

The implementation and evaluation of a quality daily physical education program into a 14-room elementary school in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, is reported. The implementation process involved the services of a university professor who served as an external change agent and consultant within the project. The consultant made 20 day-long visits…

Research on improving teacher practice is examined, focusing on the collaboration of researchers and practitioners in developing effective change strategies. Three studies are introduced that provide long-range data and form a knowledge base: (1) the Rand Corporation study of federal programs supporting educational change (1978); (2) the I/D/E/A…

Participants in a working conference on changing teacher practice made recommendations for future research. Two broad classes of recommendations were sought: findings from research on teaching most amenable to translation into staff development activities, and how that translation might occur so as to be most useful in bringing about desired…

Federal costs of the National Direct Student Loan (NDSL) program and the Guaranteed Student Loan (GSL) program are compared, and alternatives to the current system of student financial assistance are discussed. It is estimated that over the life of the loan, the long-term federal costs of GSL and NDSL per dollar loaned are approximately the same…

Eight recommendations for superintendents' behavior toward school board members are developed in light of women's changing roles in society and in educational governance. The history of women's involvement in education, including their attempts and eventual success at gaining seats on school boards, is traced from the late 19th Century up to the…

Rural education may be the beneficiary of the current national focus on educational reform since concerns have centered on improving education for all students regardless of where they live, a direction not emphasized in most previous reform movements. The reforms bring challenges relating to teacher certification, curriculum, facilities, student…

In the first part of this presentation, a critique is made of teacher education in general, pointing out the fact that schools of education are resigned to accepting academically weak students and have a limited definition of good teaching. A narrow view of the teacher's role is also cited, as well as teacher educators' resistance to change. The…

Current and future issues concerning Arab higher education are discussed, along with the structure and growth of the economy and the development of general education. Economic data for 21 Arab countries are provided for 1979 that cover the per capita national income; annual rate of growth in national income; and the share of growth by the labor…

The integration of issues management into the institutional strategic planning process at Pennsylvania State University is discussed. The significance of issues management as an organizational process is also considered. Stages of the issues management process are: (1) scanning the external environment to identify strategic issues; (2) analyzing…

Policy changes in state higher education since the early 1980s are described. For each innovation, the problem and impetus for change are described, as well as the results. Contact persons and some publications are identified. While two states addressed both quality and flexibility in fiscal reform, 13 states had incremental reforms addressing…

Inappropriate grade placement of a migrant child frequently prevents the child from graduating. Statistics show that very few migrants graduate at age 20, and almost none have graduated at an age older than 20. Therefore, students who are placed two or more years below their grade level are virtually doomed to drop out of school. Project Upgrade…