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This paper is a description of action research in progress centered on the development of a School/Community Planning Team as a vehicle for long-range educational planning. At present, 10 teams exist which are composed of small groups of 6-12 persons including citizens, professional educators, and students. Each team is charged with the development of long-range proposals in a specific area of school life, such as alternatives in elementary education, the education of early adolescents, and variety and depth of curriculum. Teams have numerous volunteers and research support provided by a small professional staff. The teams relate administratively to the board of education and with other teams through a Design Management Team. Three sets of variables are being studied to ascertain the impact of the teams on the educational process: (1) those relating to who participates in the teams, (2) those relating to the successful functioning of the teams internally, and (3) those variables relating to how the work of the teams is utilized by the board of education and the rest of the school system. (Author/MLF)

This model instructional system, developed for the office cluster of business occupations but having relevance for other curricula, is an approach to "modernizing" office education. Since there was a need for immediate job relevance of instruction and an integrated career progression, the instructional system is designed to be career- and performance-oriented, with self-pacing and individualized instruction, having immediate and detailed feedback to students and system managers. Through a systematic use of peer instruction in job simulation, the need for additional teachers and instructional materials is eliminated; peer instruction is also a low-risk, high-return instructional medium. Quality control in using the peer-instructional system is the responsibility of the qualified teacher. Establishment of flexible managerial capabilities within the system allows for efficient use of facilities and equipment, and precludes the need for additional expenditures in this direction. In addition, this flexibility provides ease of management in adjusting the system to accommodate increases or decreases in student population and in the type and depth of curriculum. A flow chart of the system is provided. (TA)

This paper describes how some children with learning problems feel about themselves; points out some possible witches' tales regarding understanding and communication with such children; and discusses some clinical opinions that have been developed at the Child Center, Kentfield, regarding these children. The contents of the paper include: a discussion of the lack of generally agreed-upon data concerning the cause of reading problems; a look at some of the possible pitfalls for the physician who works with children who have reading problems; a discussion of factors that tend to make the low-imagery child feel dumb and inadequate; a discussion of data from the Child Center that suggest some ways to help the low-imagery child learn; and a look at the use of input via tactile, vibration, and motor pathways to help children with reversal problems. (WR)

This paper is a preliminary report of findings from a study of racial attitudes toward black/white inequalities, conducted as part of the Social Indicators project at the Survey Research Centers at the University of California at Berkeley. Data were collected from a cross-sectional sample of the adult population of the five county San Francisco-Oakland Standard Metropolitan Statistical area. Data are reported for the weighted white sample of 198 respondents. It is postulated that insofar as prejudice can be regarded as a cognitive phenomenon, it comprises three elements: (1) perceptions of the nature and extent of group differences; (2) explanations of how such differences came about; and, (3) prescriptions for public policy and personal involvement to perpetuate, accentuate or diminish racial inequalities. Six baxic types of explanations. referred to as explanatory modes, are identified. Three major findings are reported: (1) explanatory modes differentially predict prescriptions endorsed; (2) respondents are differentially recruited into explanatory mode categories from different segments of the social structure; and, (3) relationships between the mode positions and policy preferences are not reducible to those which exist between structural characteristics and prescriptions. (Author/JM)

This paper attempts to study the local politics of compensatory education. It addresses the question of why some neighborhoods appeared to be more politically influential than others over the distribution of compensatory education funds in a large urban school district. Data for this study was gathered from 100 schools and neighborhoods of the Los Angeles Unified School District. A neighborhood was defined as a political unit corresponding to the attendance area of each school. Political influence was measured as the demonstrated ability of these neighborhoods to obtain and retain compensatory education funds from the district over a four-year period from 1969-1970 to 1972-1973. The study was planned within a framework for political systems analysis conceived by David Easton. The school district was conceived of as a political system. It was hypothesized that the system's outputs might be affected by differences in demand structures. Specifically, the political influence of each neighborhood was hypothesized to be at least partially a function of its demand structures. It was found that when ethnicity was specified the use of demand structures had a significant association with political influence especially among black neighborhoods. (Author/JM)

This paper took as its problem the belief among the general public that conflict and violence among students is a common occurrence, especially in schools that are racially mixed. The responses of 303 students from a racially mixed school. Berkeley High School, were grouped in terms of the degree to which the individual students are socially integrated and the students were examined in light of the violence they had personally experienced. It was hypothesized that students who were socially integrated across ethnic boundaries were not involved with perceived violence and conflict on the campus, while aggressive acts, in the main, involved students whose friends and companions were of their own race. Data were collected by means of a questionnaire sent to about a third of the 1970 graduating class of Berkeley High School. The Tryon clustering of objects was used to identify independent groups of students who were socially isolated or integrated across races. That procedure was effective in that it generated six clearly identifiable groups of students who were socially isolated or socially integrated across the Asian, black, and white students in the school. Because of the low frequencies, the hypothesis that conflict and violence centers around students who are not socially integrated is not supported. (Author/JM)

Drawing largely on data from Los Angeles, but with reference to other cities where appropriate, this paper attempts to clarify the distinctive positions taken by advocates of community control as opposed to proponents of administrative decentralization. While community control is essentially a political demand, oriented toward citizens influencing actual policy making, most decentralization plans, though responding to demands in the political arena, are primarily organizational, facilitating local participation in the implementation of policies already decided. Though different, both approaches represent attempts to deal with the relatively low levels of achievement and high dropout rates characterizing schools in minority areas. Whereas proposals for community control regard the poor outcomes of schooling as centering on the question of staff accountability, an organizational system perspective suggests that school ineffectiveness results from local administrators lacking both adequate resources and sufficient discretion in the use of such resources as are available. It is argued here that at issue are alternative definitions of the situation, one based on the theoretical perspectives of a political system model, the other on those of an organization as an open system, responsive to environmental constraints and contingencies. (Author/JM)

The Division of Program Evaluation and Research of the Los Angeles County Superintendent's Office provides program evaluation consultation services to all local educational agencies (grades K-14) in Los Angeles County. The three program evaluation services that are described are: (1) Educational Program Evaluation Planning Assistance, (2) Educational Program Audit Assistance, and (3) Direct Evaluator Assistance. (One section of the paper presents an introduction to the audit process through the use of a question-and-answer format). The program evaluation services have recently been provided to more than 40 elementary, secondary, and community college agencies. In addition, the progress or results of evaluations of: Early Childhood, Compensatory Education, Mentally Gifted Minors, Educationally Handicapped, Ransom Reading, Career Awareness, Community College Veterans' Recruitment, and Community College Children's Centers will be described. The assertion will be made that behavioral objectives as used in program evaluations are essentially research hypotheses and that data analysis and interpretations should recognize this through the employment of statistically derived confidence intervals. Another assertion that will be made is that three criteria should be used in judging program evaluation: (1) standards of behavioral science research; (2) utility; and (3) cost-benefit considerations. Finally, two program evaluation models will be compared to the one that has evolved in the County Office. (Author)

The ACE model, an impact model that offers a number of specific, interrelated equations to provide quantitative results of college operation in the local economy, is discussed. The components affected include local business, governments, and individuals, with both positive and negative economic impacts on each group. A table presents Cypress College Economic Impact on Local Community. A list of 25 references is provided. (DB)

The Far West Laboratory Model (Far West School) in downtown Oakland, California, an employer-based career education program of experiential learning, has focused on the developmental issues of how high school academic requirements and career exploration in the community can be integrated into a common set of learning activities, and the virtues and liabilities of a highly individualized curriculum. Thirty volunteer students from Oakland high schools participated full time in the 1972-73 program that drew mainly on the use of resource persons, large employer organization resources, and community and supplementary resources as instructional activities. Each student's learning program primarily was planned, focused, and documented by means of projects. The developmental program produced many learning options in which to acquire career information, personal and social skills. Future study and work is needed in the transition area of students leaving a highly structured, controlled environment and adjusting to one requiring extensive personal initiative and responsibility. (EA)

The effect of cognitive style and learning conditions on the rote verbal learning performance of Mexican American subjects classified as field independent or field dependent was investigated. Field dependent referred to a strong perceptual influence caused by the context or background while field independent referred to an ability to overcome the influence of a surrounding perceptual field. The sample consisted of 44 Mexican American children, 9 1/2 to 12 years, enrolled in a Southern California public school. The Portable Rod and Frame Test classified subjects as field independent or dependent. The learning component consisted of 3 stages: (1) the response learning stage, which reflected when the subject recalled the response as a unit, (2) the associative one stage, which reflected the first correct association between stimulus and response, and (3) the associative two stage, which indicated actual mastery of the correct association. The subjects were tested in a distraction free room within the school by Mexican American experimenters. One half of the subjects from each group were randomly assigned to one of 2 learning conditions: personalized and impersonalized rewards. Results demonstrated that Mexican American children, regardless of cognitive style, required fewer trials when personal rewards were employed. The present study failed to reflect field independence/dependence as a major dimension of individual differences. (NQ)

This presentation describes the year-round school operation of the Chula Vista City School District in California. Chula Vista adopted the 45-15 year-round plan to help ease a shortage of classroom space while maintaining a quality program for children. Under the plan, each pupil attends school for about nine weeks and then has vacation for three weeks. Throughout the year, one-fourth of the pupils are on vacation at any time. Major advantages of the year-round program are that the long summer vacation is redistributed into shorter seasonal vacations, the school facility is in use 12 months a year, variations in teacher contracts are possible, and most of the benefits of the traditional school program are retained. Disadvantages include the break in the tradition of a long summer holiday, difficulties in scheduling and communication, more expensive maintenance, and the need to study and consider vacation programs throughout the entire year. The document also considers answers to questions often asked about implementation of a year-round school program. The 1974-75 year-round school calendar for each student group is included. (Author/DN)

The desegregation decision by a local school system sometimes is perceived as the result of pressure, and at other times as unrelated to overt pressure for desegregation. Contrary to both of these views, this exploratory study suggests that a positive desegregation decision may stem from the personal values of school board members. These values may change under the impact of dissent over desegregation. Such change, however, seems to be relatively unaffected by political factors and often appears as the result of an individual identity conflict and a "secular conversion." Models of change as the result of forced compliance, political accommodation, and secular conversion are examined, and several significant elements of secular conversion tentatively are identified. This study focuses on seven board members during desegregation decisions in three California school districts. Six board members, two in each district, were selected for the study; they changed from a public position opposing desegregation to one of support; all voted for the desegregation plan. One eventually proved unavailable for the study, while two other board members from these districts were added, one who never changed in opposition to desegregation and one who never changed in support for desegregation. (Author/JM)

Long-range planning from the point of view of the multicampus system is discussed. The need for long-range planning generally is indicated, and special planning problems for the large multicampus district are described. A planning process model that is being developed by the Los Angeles Community College District to meet planning needs is discussed. (DB)

Undertaken in April and May of 1974, this study utilized a two-page, 52-item questionnaire which was mailed to 300 high school journalism teachers in the state of California. The teachers were selected by random sampling and represent 78 percent of the estimated 382 who teach at schools with enrollments of 1000 or more. One hundred seventy-six questionnaires were returned and 158 (52.6 percent) were usable for tabulation purposes. The hypotheses that high school journalism teachers lack professional and academic journalistic experience and that they desire help in improving their qualifications were borne out by the results of the study. Recommendations for improving teacher preparation in California are discussed and several solutions are suggested. (RB)

An investigation of long term effects of boarding school education was conducted among Navajo women who had attended boarding school on the reservation during the 1950's. Subjects were 23 Navajo mothers and, for 17 mothers, their preschool children; all lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. A series of open-ended interviews obtained information on each mother's life history, school background, and childrearing practices. An in-home testing session included a variety of self-image and attitude measures for the mothers and systematic observations of mother-child interactions during structured and unstructured activity. Women who had spent at least 1 full year of middle childhood (ages 7-14) at home without school experience (i.e., neither boarding school nor day school) scored significantly higher than their boarding school counterparts on self image instruments and on a maternal competence scale independent of the mother's age, the age of her first child, or her feelings toward her parental home. Observations of mother-child interactions showed no difference in the overt child care behaviors of the mothers; however, the dimension of "self satisfaction" displayed in children's behavior was significantly associated with the mother's background; mothers with at least one year at home during middle childhood had children who appeared more content. (JH)