ADMINISTRATIVE CHRONICLE VICTORIA*

In its final months the outgoing Thompson Liberal Ministry was largely pre-occupied with the implementation of its New Directions strategy. It introduced a public service bill in December to bring about greater effectiveness in the public service and ensure that its policy priorities were understood, thus complementing the Effectiveness Review Committee already set up, and it began a review of the three central coordinating agencies, the Public Service Board, the Treasury and the Department of the Premier, with an independent American consultant. The thrust of these three measures was to advise the government on proposals to set up new departments, relocate personnel and manpower resources, to set up programs for effectiveness reviews, and to bring forward amendments to the Public Service Act of 1974 which had followed Sir Henry Bland's inquiry in the early 1970s. These were intended to give the Public Service Board extended powers to allow it to conduct effectiveness reviews into statutory authorities, to extend Board employment powers to such authorities and to bring them into the public service framework, ensuring a more cohesive and less fragmented State public service. Senior staff could now be employed on term appointments, with performance-oriented objectives, giving greater flexibility at the top. And finally, the Board was to have power to become involved in specific industrial issues at the departmental level, sharpening its current generalized industrial powers.     

Work and growth: A review of research on the impact of work experience on adolescent development

Work has not been extensively studied as a context for adolescent development, even though increased work experience has been widely recommended as a means of improving the transition of adolescents to adulthood. Studies of the impact of work experience on adolescent socialization, defined broadly, suggest that work has beneficial results that persist over time. Developmental theorists and critics of conventional patterns of workplace organization remind us, however, that current knowledge is inadequate to specify optimal types and amounts of work experience for adolescents. Studies of narrower outcomes of work experience — career knowledge and plans, job-related attitudes, behavior, and skills — are less persuasive. An ecological strategy is recommended for future research. Such research should consider the varying effects of different kinds of work experience on different adolescents and should seek those effects in settings other than the workplace and over long periods.Received his Ed.D. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1975. Main interests are the transition of adolescents to adulthood and the development and evaluation of programs to ease that transition.Main interests are the interaction between families and human development, especially the effects of work.     

Knowing voices: From silence to wisdom

Mary F. Belenky, Blythe McV. Clinchy, Nancy R. Goldberger, & Jill M. Tarule, Women's Ways of Knowing: The Development of Self, Voice and Mind (Basic Books) New York, 1986.     

The politics of the national assessment of chapter 1

This article describes the events associated with the National Assessment of Chapter 1, a study mandated by Congress in December 1983 in anticipation of its 1987 reauthorization of Chapter 1. The assessment occurred at the time the Reagan Administration was seriously challenging many of Congress's favorite educational programs, including Chapter 1. Despite their serious differences in views about Chapter 1, both Congress and the administration expected the assessment to serve their own needs and each group was worried that the other would have undue influence on the assessment. The article illustrates the politics associated with evaluation by describing the activities of the assessment, the responses of each of these two audiences, and the efforts of each side to control the assessment's agenda. It raises questions about whether an evaluation can really serve multiple audiences.