The concept of leadership is defined, and its role in improving inner-city schools is assessed. Leaders in effective schools and student motivation are considered. Leaders should reject the cultural deficit notion and commit themselves to the belief that every child can learn in school by setting an appropriate pace. (TJH)

Efforts by Canada and the United States to implement human rights education programs in schools are described, with attention to legal and administrative structural influences. The rationale for inclusion of such programs is provided. Recently developed programs and hindrances to program implementation are also considered. (TJH)

The means by which Sri Lanka and Belize--two former British colonies differing greatly in economic development and resources--implement a language planning policy are discussed. Attention is given to educational systems, materials development, teacher training, and student attitudes toward English--four major issues in language planning currently…

This comparison deals with the impact of federal or regional control on certain aspects of educational provision, using case studies of Canada and Brazil. Despite the disparate situations of the two countries, both are affected by the inability of national governments to deal effectively with some educational needs. (TJH)

Educational problems affecting binational migrant children in the United States and Mexico are documented, and results of a pertinent ethnographic study and two binational conferences are presented. Findings indicate that international migration has a negative impact on the schooling of binational migrant children. (TJH)

A rating device was used to assess the ability of four moral education textbooks used in Indonesia to engender a sense of patriotism in students. Results from the three-part rating form allow ranking of the books based on several standards and suggest means of supplementing the preferred textbook's value. (TJH)

The Iraqi National Literacy Campaign is described. Early efforts and reform actions taken since 1968 by the Baath Socialist Party are covered. Special attention is given to administrative structures involved. Reasons for the relative success of the program are highlighted. (TJH)

A survey of governmental support of school-university collaborations, both national and international, is reported. Examples are viewed within the models of J. I. Goodland (1988) and P. C. Schlechty and B. Whitford (1988) and reviewed in terms of the implications for educational intracommunications and development of lifelong learning strategies.…

Ethnographic methods were used to assess three learning-disabled and three normal tenth and eleventh grade boys at a school with an unusually low dropout rate. Institutional, classroom, and interpersonal factors behind the schools' student retention ability are described. (TJH)

Concerns of students at risk of dropping out of school in an urban setting were studied using innovative ethnographic methods. Students served as collaborators to tape dialogues between themselves and peers. Results for 77 dialogues among 61 individuals indicate the importance of pressure from outside and boredom within the school. (TJH)

A within-class design was used to study process/product relationships between the quality of classroom discourse and sixth grade student achievement. Ten teachers taught one-hour lessons on light. Results indicate negative relations between violations of communicative logic and high-aptitude students' percentage-correct responses on test items.…

To assess teachers' and students' perceptions of children of divorced parents, questionnaires were administered to 104 teachers and 120 seventh and eighth graders who viewed a film of a child doing different activities. Subjects' responses were significantly more negative if they were told the child lived with a divorced mother. (TJH)

Two field experiments were conducted to compare the effects of a cooperative learning group method to a whole-class method on acquisition of selected social-environmental studies problem-solving skills by 342 fourth graders. Both methods outperformed the control, but the cooperative strategy was less effective than was the whole-class method. (TJH)

The process of choosing a scientific major was examined in a nationally representative sample of 2,592 male and female college students of above-average ability. Socioeconomic status, high school teacher and guidance counselor influences, family and personal life priorities, and attendance at a four-year college were predictive factors. (TJH)

Issues concerning teachers' beliefs and practices about retention in kindergarten were explored in a study of 40 kindergarten teachers in one district. Teachers' beliefs and practices were found to be related. Teachers' endorsement of retention differed from extant propositional knowledge and from perceptions of other interested groups. (SLD)