This analysis of the Boston (Massachusetts) Public School System considers ways of advancing the opportunity for parent choice of school and program, and ways of breaking the bureaucratic culture of big-city American public schools to introduce a culture promoting innovation and experiment. The Boston public schools system, like large urban…

Developed through participation in an institution-wide process of developing a new long-term plan for Northeast Missouri State University (NMSU), this document presents a vision of the future of NMSU as developed by the Student Senate. The contents were shaped through a synthesis of the Student Senate's general work, open forums, research into…

In response to the change in the provincial economy from natural-resource-based industries to service-oriented industries, Vancouver Community College (VCC) in British Columbia (BC) conducted an environmental scan of the social and economic trends in the college's service region that will most likely affect prospective students' educational and…

Collaborations between schools and parents, and schools and other institutions, seek to improve or expand available resources. This issue of "Focus in Change" focuses on two elementary schools with different models of collaboration in place. At Columbia Park Elementary School (Maryland) parents have been involved in site-based management teams…

This study of how race emerges for young children as a plausible explanatory framework for incidents in their everyday lives is based on a school term of observation in each of 3 British urban elementary schools, with over 150 hours of interviews with students, ages 10 and 11 years, in their last 2 years of primary (elementary) schooling. All…

This publication presents four major research papers on college campus substance abuse prevention and research with reviews of the papers by practitioners in the substance abuse prevention field. Following a Preface and Introduction, the first paper is "Theories, Dominant Models, and the Need for Applied Research" by Gerardo M. Gonzalez.…

The first-year teaching experiences of urban teachers were studied to conceptualize the reality faced by urban teachers and to determine the implications of the urban environment for teacher education. Subjects were four graduates of a teacher education program that gave no particular attention to the urban context beyond placement for student…

This report examines the results of an international study of higher education systems, based on surveys of approximately 1,000 faculty in each of the following nations: United States, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Israel, and Australia. Findings are organized around seven…

A study was done by student researchers of Latino high school students' perspectives on the Latino dropout problem. Four large, zoned high schools with few selective programs and with substantial numbers of Latinos (23 percent to 43 percent) were selected. Two of these high schools had high and two had low Latino dropout rates. Approximately 60…

Development of an instrument to measure baseline levels of applied Total Quality Management (TQM) practices in South Dakota before the introduction and dissemination of TQM theory to the state's educational leaders is described. Using the interpretation of Deming's 14 points that was developed by J. J. Bonstigl, a 115-item initial item pool was…

How attitudes of parents, teachers, and students toward computers affect the integration and use of computer technology in schools was studied at an elementary school in Texas. Whether these attitudes changed with the introduction of computer technology and the implications of involving parents in the planning of curriculum and activities was also…

This study was part of a series of studies examining the relationship of teacher variables to teachers' adoption of computer use. Previous studies have considered computer use as a process of the adoption of innovation and as a result of the influence of the internal variables of the person. This study adds the variable of subjective norms because…

This set of research materials incorporates information for teachers, principals, students, lecturers, and actively involved parents. Included are leaflets and brief reports designed for private study, staff meetings, inservice courses, or small group discussion. The package contains 15 research studies: "Modified Sports: Kiwi and…

If schools are to respond effectively to the problems of youth at risk, they must build "reclaiming" environments that recover alienated youths by addressing both the students' needs and the needs of society. In the first of three sections, this document examines the alienation of children in a frequently inhospitable society. Destructive…

Lindo Park School in Lakeside, California has designed a program to aid students in learning self-discipline and to cut down on playground behavior problems with a reminder/referral system. Those students forgetting to be good citizens are required to take the responsibility for their own actions by calling their parents and letting them know what…