Autonomy in school provision: Meanings and implications — review essay

Using expanded evidence from the Administrator and Teacher Survey and the High School and Beyond data, the book Politics, Markets, and America's Schools, by Chubb and Moe (C&M), measures differential progress of students who remain in their chosen high schools. Of the variables positively associated with student achievement gain, school organization is clearly significant. C&M describe good school organization as inversely related to the size and dominance of bureaucracy and positively correlated with autonomy. In the absence of a precise definition by C&M this article explores the full meaning of autonomy and finds that when applying it to C&M's ultimate reform proposals, serious inconsistencies emerge. Thus, while they start with the finding that bureaucracy is “unambiguously bad” for school organization, in their last chapter the authors nevertheless recommend reforms in which the existing bureaucracy rather than autonomy is in central charge. In the same vein, their treatment of the voucher system and private schooling, which would clearly promote more autonomy, is decidedly and unexpectedly cool.     

Frankly Speaking

Government teachers who have a sincere desire to make their courses significant and interesting will find Dr. Struve's criticisms justified and his suggestions useful.     

Cybersupervision: Further Examination of Synchronous and Asynchronous Modalities in Counseling Practicum Supervision

The authors used an intensive single‐subject quantitative design to examine cybersupervision of counseling practicum students in a university setting. Five female supervisees volunteered to receive their required weekly supervision online during a 14‐week, semester‐long counseling practicum. Following a face‐to‐face orientation meeting, all remaining interactions among the supervisees and with the supervisor occurred electronically. Data were collected about the utility of the synchronous and asynchronous modalities, changes in supervisee competence and confidence during the practicum, and supervisee attitudes about the cybersupervision approach. The findings offered evidence that the web‐based modality could be used in similar settings.