On April 18, 1989, eighteen school aged children from the metropolitan Hartford, Connecticut area, acting through their parents, commenced a civil action in the Hartford Superior Court. The suit named the State of Connecticut, constitutionally elected officials, and officials of various state commissions and agencies as defendants. The plaintiffs alleged significant constitutional violations under applicable sections of the State constitution which they believe constituted a denial of their fundamental rights to an education and rights to equal protection under the law. In the landmark civil rights decision of Sheff v. O'Neill, the Connecticut Supreme Court, on July 16, 1996, ruled that based upon these constitutional claims, the state had an affirmative obligation to provide Connecticut's school children with a substantially equal educational opportunity. This constitutionally guaranteed right encompasses the access to a public education which is not substantially and materially impaired by racial and ethnic isolation. The Court further concluded that school districting based upon town and city boundary lines are unconstitutional. The implications and potential ramifications of this decision are significant. This dissertation chronicles the events and examines the issues surrounding this landmark decision. The background contributing to the plaintiffs claims, the state's position, the historical evolution of the case, and reaction/actions and proposals to remedy and comply with the court's order are examined.

This descriptive and interpretive study explores the problem of school funding uncertainty in Massachusetts. Information from three main strands converges on the achievement status of today's Massachusetts students: the history of school funding since the earliest permanent English-speaking settlements, the municipal budget-making process in Massachusetts as it affects school funding, and the state budget-making process in regard to its effect on the funding of public K-12 education. Clearly the history of school funding mirrors social and economic issues in the 400-year period reviewed. Definition of social and economic needs of the citizenry has been a continuous political process. Who has had the power to define the needs has affected the funding of public schools. The municipal school funding process in Massachusetts is reviewed both as an annual procedural cycle and as a product of ongoing politically sensitive relationships at the local level. Its effect on the funding of public K-12 schools is influenced by the credibility and political effectiveness of the school district leadership. Funding of public schools by the state is also reviewed both as an annual procedural cycle and as a product of the political give and take that legislators rely upon to get their own agendas supported. Against this background of the past history and current process of allocating resources for public K-12 schools, student achievement scores are examined relative to money provided for schools. A statewide pattern showing money reflected in student achievement is found--both public money and personal money. This study concludes that in Massachusetts, while the uncertainty of school funding continues from year to year regardless of the 1993 Education Reform Act, a sufficient and stable flow of money to the schools is necessary to prepare students adequately for the future. Suggestions for further study and for local action are detailed.

In the decades following World War II American higher education enjoyed a period of unprecedented growth and development. By the 1970s, however, it was clear that the growth curve was flattening. The prospect of fiscal stringency sparked interest in formal planning, and campuses experimented with Program Planning Budgeting Systems (PPBS) and other "rational" planning approaches. As the 1980s unfolded, however, the sense that fiscal problems would persist deepened, and the emphasis shifted to effectiveness. "Strategic" approaches to planning--emphasizing adaptive change in response to environmental analysis--came into wide use. The comprehensiveness and complexity of strategic approaches introduced new challenges for which institutions were poorly prepared, and many had disappointing experiences. The literature offered only fragmented and often inconsistent advice for institutions contemplating strategic planning. The author reviewed the literature with an eye toward identifying "conditions" that support successful planning. Five such conditions were identified: (1) consensus for change; (2) focus on institutional needs; (3) good "fit" between planning and the campus culture; (4) effective faculty participation; and (5) effective leadership. It is argued that an institution which satisfies these conditions increases its chances of success; conversely, an institution which falls short in these areas diminishes its chances. This hypothesis was explored in a case study of planning efforts at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst between 1971 and 1992. The campus engaged in seventeen planning efforts, nine of which were judged to be "strategic." Of the nine, only two could be considered "successful," both quite modest in scope. An examination of the campus's status with respect to the five "conditions" suggested that they were useful in understanding the planning outcomes. The five conditions were then recast as a "diagnostic" tool, a set of questions to be answered before embarking on strategic planning. This tool should help the institution understand its "readiness" to undertake strategic planning; identify areas in which ameliorative action is needed; form a more realistic set of planning expectations. A number of directions for future research are suggested to both test the predictive power of the five conditions and to enhance the usefulness of the diagnostic tool.

Thesis (M.Arch.)--University of Detroit Mercy, 2006. / "1 May 2006". Includes bibliographical references (p. 200-204).

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T16:32:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ritchie Soares Barbosa Martins.pdf: 13273971 bytes, checksum: 880aafa4d8edb53ef5e01930d1563ab6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-07-31 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The objective of this research is to study the teaching of history at the Normal School of Sao Paulo from 1880 to 1890 to see if that school, facing teacher training for schools first letters had their bases connected to what was proposed in the programs of elementary schools or secondary school. The proposed analysis begins at the time the school went through its third founding in 1880 until 1890, the year it happened a reform school for suitability to the republican model. The research is founded on the contributions of the "History of School Subjects" and uses the theoretical framework of authors such as André Chervel, Ivor Goodson, seeking a search that is not restricted to teaching and pedagogical issues, but also, the significance of this knowledge the training of teachers in a school that was now being consolidated in the educational history of São Paulo, trying to understand the teaching of history from its objectives, content, teaching methods proposed and production, in a historical perspective / O objetivo dessa pesquisa consiste em estudar o ensino de História na Escola Normal de São Paulo 1880 a 1890, verificando se este ensino, voltado para formação de professores para escolas de primeiras letras, teve suas bases vinculadas ao que foi proposto nos programas das escolas elementares ou do ensino secundário. A análise proposta se inicia no momento em que a escola passou pela sua terceira fundação 1880 até 1890, ano em que aconteceu uma reforma para adequação da escola ao modelo republicano. A pesquisa tem como fundamentos as contribuições da chamada História das Disciplinas Escolares e usa o referencial teórico de autores como André Chervel, Ivor Goodson, visando uma pesquisa que não se restrinja apenas as questões didático-pedagógicas, mas também, ao significado desses saberes na formação dos professores de uma escola que naquele momento estava se consolidando na história educacional de São Paulo, buscando compreender o ensino de História a partir de seus objetivos, conteúdos, métodos propostos e produção didática, em uma perspectiva histórica

Is the film suitable educational tool for teaching about holocaust? That is the main question and topic of the thesis. At first it im looking into general issues of holocaust in education. I'm trying to show that holocaust is not perceived only as a historical event, but as a specific demonstration of modern society in a first place. Focusing only on its historical attributes results in ignoring ethical and societal dimensions of this topic. For that i'm also suggesting that we should be teaching about holocaust not only in history, but also in civics. Further in this paper im trying to examine using film as the educational tool. I'm working here with the proposition that the film is not representing reality, but it's always just a reflexion of the reality. And as such it needs to work with the memory. Memory is constructing frames of our thinking and understanding of the world around. While using film in education, we need to keep in mind that film is a product of certain cultural memory and memory frames. This product is then retroactively helping to reinforce those memory frames which it came from. I also did some research on legislative aspects of using film in education. In the end of this paper im trying to use aforesaid statements in designing several demonstrational classes on the topic of...