Stresses the importance of clarity and specificity of behavioral outcomes in the formulation of educational objectives. Suggests that curriculum development is more of an art than a science. (GC)

Considers five major interests at stake in higher education: social justice, competence, academic freedom, autonomy/accountability, and decentralization/centralization. Suggests that the implementation of conflicting interests is less a matter of the relation between the state and higher education than of relations between the academic profession…

Using data collected from 25 secondary schools in the Study of Schooling sample, investigated the relationship between race/ethnicity and the scope/substance of vocational courses taken. Found substantive differences between and within schools' vocational programs that resulted in different vocational experiences of White and non-White students.…

Reviews "The Uses of the University" by Clark Kerr, "Beyond the Ivory Tower: Social Responsibilities of the Modern University" by Derek Bok, and "The University and the Public Interest" by A. Bartlett Giamatti. (GC)

Presents a structural framework for the sociological analysis of special education. Describes special education as one of the ways in which schools perform their reproductive task by differentiating children and allocating them to different educational treatments. Employs the framework to analyze the different histories of special education in…

Reviews an article by James G. Carrier on a social control theory of special education. Argues that Carrier ignores empirical data, and that special education programs in the United States develop cyclically, in response to specific social pressures--not, as Carrier contends, in response to a generalized movement toward a contractualist society.…

Replies to a review of another article he wrote which presented a framework for the sociological analysis of special education. Clarifies the distinction between substantialist and contractualist ideologies, and argues that the latter is the basis for special education differentiation. Rebuts the allegation that Marxist sociology has been…

Presents findings from a study that applied selected school effectiveness factors to effective elementary schools of differing student socioeconomic status. Reports that most effectiveness factors are strongly influenced by the social context of the school: thus, practitioners should not treat the well-publicized effectiveness factors as…

Discusses changes in conceptions underlying research on individual differences since the 1940s, trends such as the cognitive revolution in psychology and education, and the increase of societal egalitarianism. Argues that current emphasis on the malleability of individual differences demonstrates a need for individualized instruction that…

Reviews C.A. Bowers's book, "The Promise of Theory: Education and the Politics of Cultural Change." Summarizes Bowers's central arguments concerning modernity, the relation of schooled knowledge to the nature of all cultural knowledge, and usefulness of the sociology of knowledge to improving instruction. (KH)

Examines the ideological origins of vocational education and the reasons why people holding a broad spectrum of political and economic opinion found vocational education attractive. Argues that despite differing views on vocational policies, reformers were united by a desire to improve the functioning of society. (ETS)

The model institutions which have shaped American graduate schools of education emerged between 1900 and 1940. Tensions between academic and professional interests as well as between professional school and school of education faculties led to estrangement within the field and further tensions between educational schools and their universities.…

Studies abacus calculation to explore the development of skills and the resulting consequences. Consideration of the effects of abacus training, transfer of the skill to other tasks, and the contexts in which abacus skill develops demonstrates the multiple ways in which specific skills can contribute to cognitive development. (ETS)

Examines whether learning rates vary across students, teachers, and subject matter as a function of instructional time. Offers a model of the relationship between time and learning. Discovers that the varying positive effects of instructional time on reading and mathematics achievement depend on teachers' and students' initial ability. (ETS)

Finds that the level of convergence in teachers' beliefs is sensitive to local environmental forces: heterogeneity of students, size of administrative staff, and the community's social class. Examines the influence of environmental and internal school factors on convergence and explores which conditions increase that influence, including reliance…