Discusses the advantages of centralized services (including materials selection, acquisitions, cataloguing, processing, loan of expensive and unique materials, and production of local materials) as practiced by the Calgary Board of Education. Notes how costs savings should be measured. Stresses the essential cooperation between school-based…

Organizational context, organizational complexity, and bureaucratic control in 50 Japanese industrial manufacturing plants are analyzed. Highly dependent organizations rely on centralization and formalization to maintain administrative control. The significant relationship between formalization and centralization indicates that they are not…

Two competing images present schools as either rational bureaucracies or loosely coupled systems. Teachers in 13 Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) schools were surveyed on two dimensions distinguishing these images: goal consensus and influence centralization. The results suggest that high schools fit the loosely coupled image and elementary schools the…

Used factors identified in the literature as predictors of centralization/decentralization as potential discriminating variables among several decision making configurations in university affiliated professional schools. The model developed from multiple discriminant analysis had reasonable success in classifying correctly only the decentralized…

Problems unique to central administrations and board members are discussed, including the line of authority, treating institutions equitably, exceeding statute-imposed limitations, the failure of board members to do their homework, and the extent to which the board should represent the people of the state and the institutions it governs. (MLW)

The administration of higher education is increasingly taking on the characteristics of corporate management. Personnel decision making has become more formal and centralized. The shift to more policy-dictated personnel practices is occurrring on both nonunionized and unionized campuses. (Author/MLW)

The prevailing trends in American education-- centralization, bureaucratization, and hyperrationalization-- are being pressed upon the institution of schooling through current modes of educational change. A better approach is to increase human control over educating, locating responsibility for educational improvement with the teachers themselves.…

The role of statewide governing and coordinating boards to represent a statewide, public interest point of view within that structure, avoiding partisan politics and partisanship among educational institutions or interest groups is discussed. Three functions of the statewide postsecondary agencies are identified: planning, program and budget…

Summarizes the results of the National University Continuing Education Association's 1978-79 survey of member institutions. Four categories presented are (1) centralization; (2) staffing patterns and composition; (3) budget composition; and (4) staff training needs. (SK)

Reviews some of the forms school centralization has assumed, some of the problems following in its wake, and a few of the solutions undertaken to date. Optional (nontraditional) schools are singled out as a promising answer to governance difficulties. (Author/MLF)

Both public and private institutions are included in this analysis of the forces that have changed and are continuing to change the educational world--its problems, perspectives, and potential. (Editor)

The United Kingdom's educational reforms promote parental choice and school competition. This paper examines social-class differences among parents and their relationship to choice, using PASCI (Parental and School Choice Interaction) study data. Schools are concentrating on middle-class, academically oriented parents. However, market forces…

School governance has recently dominated Canadian provinces' political agendas. Every province has reduced the number of school boards and centralized decision making. This article summarizes school board and funding status in each province and territory. Alberta, British Columbia, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec have…

The effectiveness of adult literacy education in Botswana is limited by centralization, lack of teacher and learner input, and the national literacy campaign's conventional rather than transformative approach. A critical approach that involves learners in planning, uses native languages, and enables teachers to select materials can better achieve…

Describes the development and current status of a campus-wide computer network at Brown University. Topics discussed include the principles that guided network development; services available through the network; current structure of the network; and university support for the network. (CLB)