Schools’ Computing Policy as State‐directed Innovation

The decade 1980‐90 was one of great importance for educational computing. The outstanding feature of the first half of the decade was the Micro‐electronics Education Programme (MEP) which ran from 1981 to 1986. This period may be described as one of relatively open‐ended exploration. In the second half of the decade, by contrast, there was a sharpening of policy goals and a move towards curriculum compulsion. This paper seeks to establish the key role of central government in promoting the use of computers in schools. It notes a shift throughout the decade away from a rationale based on industrial and vocational considerations towards a rationale based on considerations of effective teaching and learning. But it argues that there is still a need for greater clarification of objectives and more precise identification of the resources necessary to meet those objectives.     

6 Urban schools as organizations: political perspectives

Reformed at the turn of the century toward top‐down, centralized administration, city school systems are frequently being reorganized today toward a bottom‐up, decentralized construction. The most radical of these is Chicago. But Chicago, in a condition shared widely throughout the USA, is a city school system experiencing serious budgetary and infrastructure decline ‐ a condition tending anew toward organizational centralization. Such political forces may not mesh well ‐ as a new politics of adaptive realignment at the grassroots encounters renewed strength in an ‘old politics’ of bureaucratic centralization. Largely unstudied and unknown at this time are the effects on the internal politics of the organization in city schooling ‐ a politics that may adapt in some unforeseen way to new battles between top‐down and bottom‐up.     

The emergent literacy skills of four-year-old children receiving free kindergarten early childhood education in New Zealand

This study investigated the emergent literacy and language skills of four-year-old children in New Zealand during their kindergarten year prior to school-entry. A total of 92 four-year-old children from a range of socio-economic areas were seen individually at their local kindergarten and were assessed on code-related measures (letter name knowledge, initial phoneme awareness, emergent name writing) and meaning-related measures (story comprehension and retelling ability). Approximately, 60% of the parents completed a home literacy questionnaire. Regression analyses showed no effect for age on any of the code-related measures. In contrast, significant effects for age were found on story comprehension and retelling ability. There were no differences in performance based on gender with two exceptions: Girls performed better than boys on letter name knowledge and early name writing. Questionnaire results suggested literacy activities were valued in the home environment with most parents reporting reading to their child each night, and the majority of parents reported owning more than 60 children’s books. Results from the current study suggest more explicit teaching may be necessary within the kindergarten curriculum to facilitate the code-related skills linked to successful word recognition ability and early spelling development.     

An Exploratory Examination of a Grant-making Project in Social Work Education

Educators secure funding for MSW students to become a grant-making entity and provide monies to address local needs. An exploratory research design is used to obtain quantitative and qualitative data from students participating in the course-based project. Feedback suggests that students perceived increased abilities in the area of community needs assessments, grant writing, grant making, fund raising, public relations, and professional interest in efforts to secure monies. The merits and challenges of implementing a course-based grant-making and philanthropic project in the social work education are examined.