Educational Policymaking 1977-78: A Snapshot from the States. A Report to the Associates Program.

The Associates Program of the Institute for Educational Leadership is a network of educational policy-makers in over 30 states. Each state's Associate conducts several seminars each year for the benefit of the state's key policy-makers. In 1977 these Associates (then numbering 23) and the participants in their seminars responded to questionnaires designed to assess general policy-making directions and implications at the state level across the nation. This report identifies several policy areas considered crucial by respondents, including educational finance in the wake of the Serrano and Rodriguez decisions and the Jarvis tax initiative; minimal competency testing; collective bargaining; academic freedom and financial accountability in higher education; the mandate for mainstreaming; declining enrollment; and the changing role of the state in education. The relationship between state and federal authority and the impact of politics are considered in light of all these issues. The report is identified by its author as "impressionistic" and acknowledged to be limited because of the nature of the sources of its data, though those sources are considered important and knowledgeable. (PGD)