Suggests some leading questions to guide much needed investigation and appraisal of the history of education in Northern black ghettos. (DE)

Proliferating the number of decision centers and separating needs from resources minimizes the ability of metropolitan areas to deal with areawide problems. State governments often encourage such fragmentation to minimize the risk that a given metropolitan area would act in a cohesive fashion. (Author/KC)

Reviews the benefits and disadvantages of online searching in the context of cooperative reference network services. The cost effectiveness of centralization of online information retrieval services, problems associated with doing searches at the network level, and subsidizing search services are discussed. (Author/JL)

Describes debates over general education and the common curriculum in Great Britain and Canada. In Great Britain, the central government's Department of Education and Science supports a core curriculum. In Canada, the National Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, may recommend a common curriculum to the provincial ministries of education.…

Warns against haphazard "decrementalism" as a result of retrenchment. Suggest three different stages of development in U.S. public education. Argues that a community of commitment is possible if educational leaders reformulate the purposes of public education in a tough-minded and coherent way. (Author/WD)

The author describes some of the processes and findings of her doctoral study of the issue of centralization v decentralization in Hawaii's government and schools from 1950-70. (SJL)

Reviews a study which examined computerized bibliographic centers in Canada identifying three types: (1) library processing facility; (2) library network user group; and (3) information retrieval facility. The study also reported on ways to promote a computerized library network with emphasis on national location service. (CWM)

In this article, both the psychology behind minimum competency testing (MCT) and the statistics employed to determine the line between competence and incompetence are attacked. MCT is viewed as a crisis created to discredit teachers and schools and as a means of invasion of public education by state level bureaucrats and politicians. (RLV)

A historical review of antidemocratic social thinking since 1885 and its educational consequences: compulsory education managed by a central bureaucracy rather than by individuals in local communities, and a gradual "narrowing" of the definition of democracy through state-regulated mind control by schools. (SAS)

The recent trend toward development of a radical, market-oriented educational policy with seemingly contradictory pressures for centralization and decentralization has been well-documented. Based on a case study of a large urban (British) college, this paper considers implications, suggesting that contemporary policy thrusts have spawned…

Explores the historical development of British Columbia's community college, university college, and institute system with the focus on voluntary collaboration in relation to provincial coordination and on swings between centralization and decentralization. Study examines development in BC's post secondary system in light of broader global…

Asserts that the federal government should adopt a centralized governmental structure for the privacy protection of personal information and data. Discusses the roles of federal law, federal agencies, and the judiciary; the concept of information privacy; the impact of current technologies; and models of centralized government structures for…

Discusses mainstreaming and centralization, two ways in which community colleges organize developmental education. Compares these models in terms of instructional quality, ancillary services, teacher characteristics, student reactions, reputation, and remediation. Offers recommendations to college administrators and state policy makers for…

Budget decisions in large institutions should be decentralized. Decentralization can be accomplished by responsibility center budgeting, block budgeting, or combinations thereof. The system should be designed so that organization unit heads have maximum incentive to be efficient and to optimize decisions on an institutionwide basis where…

Maintains that, contrary to popular predictions of their decentralizing impact, digital communications contribute to new and more complex forms of corporate integration on a global scale. Discusses how to deflect the centralizing spatial bias of new communications technology. (SR)