When a crisis arrives, two elements can help save your school's reputation: the principal's precrisis credibility with the public and the press and a crisis communication plan. Crisis plans should designate a school spokesperson and procedures for gathering, communicating, and disseminating information. Key audiences include staff, students, and…

Mill's liberty principle and the children's rights movement ("die Antipadagogen") are discussed in terms of Mill's attitude of paternalism in children's education. Mill contends that the individual liberty of children must be limited for their own good. Proponents of educational liberalism are not justified in claiming Mill as a…

Competency testing is a fact of life for many new teachers. This article describes different types of tests and the purposes for which they are used in various states. Teachers and spokespersons for educational organizations and institutions express their views on testing and on how test results may affect teacher education. (PP)

The author considers the 1974 Kanawha County textbook censorship controversy as an attempt by fundamentalist parents to banish "alien" moral influences from the schools and to strengthen community control over learning. He focuses on the role and views of school board member Alice Moore, a leading spokesperson of the fundamentalists.…

Because schools are entrusted with children's safety, any crisis (particularly food poisoning) affecting that inviolable trust is fodder for a ravenous media. Proactive school business officials and food-service personnel work together to publicize the school nutrition department's good work. Communicating clearly and assigning a food-service…

Interviews in five Dutch printing/communications firms, survey responses from 462 of 1069 managers, and a DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process identified technical changes, skill needs, and management tasks in the industry. A new structure was developed for training managers in these roles: producer, innovator, motivator, administrator,…

Urges Catholic educators to develop a crisis communication plan to ensure that all communication with the press and public is handled promptly and thoroughly by a designated spokesperson. Describes workshops which simulate real-life challenges as a means of testing crisis management plans. Offers guidelines for the development of a crisis…

For most of the history of the United States , higher education leaders were spokespersons and philosophers. After World War II, the presidential role shifted to administrator. Two possible paradigms emerge for the next century: conventional corporate hierarchy or one in which the president maintains internal responsibilities and the board takes…

Presents "typical" responses to a teacher's suicide at a fictitious high school, highlighting both appropriate and inappropriate responses. Actions such as holding an impromptu faculty meeting, providing counseling, and selecting a spokesperson worked. The district erred in having no existing plan or crisis headquarters, making misguided…

Offers a content analysis of science and technology stories in eight major newspapers. Shows conflict and depth in stories to be significantly related to predictor-variable population rank, with depth and breadth significantly related to predictor-variable time (years); and that organizational spokespersons were used more as sources than…

Indicates that corporate speechwriters actively seek to identify possible speech issues for their organizations' spokespersons, often helping to build clients' speech agendas. Suggests that the "Strategic Issues Management" (SIM) model can be useful to practitioners and students of policy speechwriting/spokesmanship by providing the…

States that current guidance for organizational spokespersons lacks a clear theoretical and empirical foundation. Describes a study designed to rank preferences for five previously identified rhetorical strategies for responding to hostile questions in environmental meetings based on speech act theory. Finds responses based on the timing strategy…

This study examined personal concern, perceived risk, and sexual behavior of 147 college students a year after Magic Johnson announced he tested positive for HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus). It found that identification mediates message effects, suggesting that a spokesperson with whom an audience can identify insures the greatest likelihood of…

Notes that a developing multimedia network to connect three campuses allowed students in a Media, Religion and Cultural Identity course, national spokespersons, editors, and journalists to discuss the role of mediated religion, its impact on public opinion and on popular culture. Considers how a learning community was created. Argues for…

The fragmented field of continuing education may lack leaders because of the lack of a single model of practice. Preserving the diversity of the field may require spokespersons rather than leaders. Career success in continuing higher education may depend on commitment to continuing education itself, to administrative advancement, or to a vision of…