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Codes of conduct have been adopted very broadly on both sides of the Atlantic in the last two decades. They have been introduced for both elected representatives and appointed officials. Though the accountability mechanisms vary, elected politicians prefer self-policing and enforcement. For appointed officials who carry out specialized functions with exposure to particular, clearly identifiable, ethical risks, where the need for public trust and confidence is great, it is important but also relatively straightforward to develop codes of practice. For generalist public servants, the situation is different. The range of ethical risk to which civil servants are exposed is broader. It is less easy to be specific about the risks involved.

“Rational planning models” emerged in the early 1970's as a means by which to plan more effectively and efficiently in educational organizations. One of the most well known and widely distributed of these models was developed by Phi Delta Kappa, the educational fraternity. This paper describes a field study conducted in five Vermont schools that were “early users” of the Phi Delta Kappa material. The outcomes reveal many discrepancies between the theory and the reality of planning in public schools. In addition to the Vermont research, other research is cited that supports many of the findings and relates them to planning in schools in general. The article concludes by linking the study outcomes to recent works by other authors on the emerging concepts of loosely coupled systems, garbage can organizations, and organized anarchies and implications these concepts hold for alternative approaches to planning in educational settings.

One of the strengths of this symposium is its focus. All of the articles in this volume concentrate on economically developed nations, with stable polities, traditions of popular government, legal systems grounded in common law, and relatively low levels of corruption. Moreover, they all deal with countries that to a greater or lesser degree have embraced the so-called New Public Management, which implies a degree of skepticism about the governance arrangements grounded in bureaucratic norms derived from the rechsstaat tradition. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, they all deal with countries, which, as Denis Saint-Martin explains in his introductory essay, are increasingly distressed about the ethics of public officials despite a paucity of lapses on their part. This makes the case comparisons reported in the symposium especially telling: there is enough variance to be informative, not enough to overdetermine the findings. Consequently, what holds for one case may reasonably be presumed to apply to all.

Michael S. Ridout, Managing Director of Uxbridge‐based Auto Diesels Braby Limited, has been appointed a Director of Braby Leslie Limited, the parent company of Auto Diesels. Braby Leslie Limited are a publicly quoted company and have ten principal operating companies—including Auto Diesels—throughout the UK in the Mechanical and Civil Engineering Fields.

Little attention is given to black male experiences and decision-making process around college-going. A qualitative study (interpretive phenomenological analysis [IPA]) was conducted using a strengths-based perspective to understand the experiences of three first-generation black men college students attending a predominately white institution. Superordinate themes include perceived benefits to attending college, barriers to college admission and attendance and influential programs and supports. Recommendations for school counselors helping black males are included.

The authors used a narrative approach to illustrate the stories and experiences captured by the three young men who participated in the study. Hays and Singh (2012) suggested using a narrative approach for telling the stories of marginalized groups. IPA (Smith, 1996) was the approach used to identify superordinate themes, because the authors wanted to better understand the participants’ K-16 experiences. As a qualitative approach, IPA provides detailed examinations of personal lived experiences on its own terms rather than pre-existing theoretical preconceptions.

The participants’ accounts clustered around three superordinate themes: perceived benefits to college, barriers to college admission and attendance and influential programs and supports.

Although there are studies that provide insight on the factors that impact first-generation, black men’s success in attending college, there are few studies that have used a strengths-based perspective to investigate key experiences that lead to college enrollment. Those experiences that lead first-generation black male to attend college are pivotal and provide insight into important points of intervention and support. School counselors and other educators can use these insights to inform practices and the creation of supports for black men in their respective schools.