Describes a process and a structure that reduced absenteeism in an inner-city school. (DW)

Presents clear statements of management rights in response to governance issues stimulated by teacher collective bargaining. (DW)

Study results indicate that overly powerful extrinsic rewards can reduce intrinsic motivation and suggest that there is a need to control unnecessarily powerful reward systems. (Author/DW)

Presents an overview of the status of early childhood education in the United States in 1974. (DW)

Herbert L. Foster has written a new book about teaching black youngsters in the inner city. A Kappan interviewer extracts some of his success secrets, among them the rules for life-or-death contests. (Editor)

Parents, professional educators, boards of education, legislators, and the general public are justifiably questioning the monies spent on education, school efficiency, what schools are actually accomplishing, and who controls the results of schooling. However, accountability, as envisioned by its major supporters, will address none of these…

In a companion article, Robert F. Bundy criticized accountability as being a contrived smokescreen to confuse the public and district attention from the real issues facing American schools. He called for a deschooling and deprofessionalization of American education. Critiques his views. (Author/JF)

The author believes grades should be awarded for achievement of stated goals -- not for attendance, effort, self-concept improvement, or conflict avoidance. In a companion article, Neil Postman offers a different view. (Editor)

An attempt to detail the varied perceptions held by educators and those held by politicians. Provides the actual language they employ to justify their shared disdain. The composite quotations in the article help put the reader in "the other guy's shoes", and serve to modify behavior patterns, which help to narrow the chasm between these two key…

Transpersonal psychology deals with altered states of consciousness, man's impluse to higher states of being, psychic phenomena, biofeedback, and voluntary control of internal states. Argues that it will lead to new educational understandings and practices. Discusses some of those practices and understandings. (Author/JF)

According to transactional analysis theory, each human has three identities -- the parent, the adult, and the child -- and moves in and out of them many times during a day. Explores the theoretical and methodological implications of this approach as a classroom management technique. (JF)

In the last 20 years the age of menarche has dropped from 13.5 years in 1950 to a predicted mean age of 11.5 for 1970. Urges that we address the social and physical consequences of the physiological revolution on contemporary America and suggests a potential role for schools to ameliorate the problem. Among the suggestions: child rearing should be…

Describes the Alum Rock voucher experiment concluding that the voucher system represents a profound structural change. Parents and students have expressed great satisfaction; pupil achievement was probably down during the first year -- but up during the second. An income-outgo budgeting system has been developed which may be the most equitable…

Too often American schools aim to satisfy the self-actualizing and higher-level needs in Maslow's hierarchy, while ignoring survival and security needs. The new State curriculum seeks to correct that deficit. To graduate, an Oregon student in the Class of 1978 will be expected to demonstrate the competencies to function effectively on the job, as…

The Hempstead schools on Long Island are among the nation's most progressive. The district has been cited by the USOE for its exemplary compensatory program. The system was individualized, but the quality of instruction could not be determined until each teacher was assessed. To do this, the district used a teaching survey instrument called the…