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Research studies of school effectiveness over the past decades have produced inconsistent and mutually contradictory findings. Early studies reached optimistic conclusions that the level of school inputs were directly related to the levels of student achievement. These were contradicted by subsequent studies which maintained that schools have little effect on student achievement which is independent of background and social context. More recent studies have questioned the research techniques of their predecessors and have cautiously emphasized the relationship between process variables and achievement. The inconsistent findings of the various research studies serve to highlight the conceptual and methodological problems involved in the area of school effectiveness. There is a lack of consensus among researchers about which measures are valid indicators of school effectiveness and the heavy concentration upon easily measured cognitive performances constitutes a limitation and imbalance in the studies. Future studies need to operationally define school effectiveness in a manner which will enable a range of measures to be taken which are valid, reliable and comprehend the full range of school effects if stronger conclusions are to be drawn. More sophisticated research techniques are also needed to identify process variables which relate to school effectiveness.

Resurgent interest in the life and work of the Italian Cambridge economist Piero Sraffa is leading to New Directions in Sraffa Scholarship. This chapter introduces readers to some of these developments. First and perhaps foremost is the fact that as of September 2016 Sraffa’s archival material has been uploaded onto the website of the Wren Library, Trinity College, Cambridge University, as digital colour images; this chapter introduces readers to the history of these events. This history provides sharp relief on the extant debates over the role of the archival material in leading to the final publication of Production of Commodities by Means of Commodities, and readers are provided a brief sketch of these matters. The varied nature of Sraffa scholarship is demonstrated by the different aspects of Sraffa’s intellectual legacy which are developed and discussed in the various entries of our Symposium. The conclusion is reached that we are on the cusp of an exciting phase change of tremendous potential in Sraffa scholarship.

Altruism seens to have a bad name among economists. Adam Smith pointed out that self‐interest, under the benign guidance of the invisible hand, was the engine that made the economic world go round. Altruism was worse than irrelevant; it was pernicious.

This chapter investigates the nature of the transformation of macroeconomics by focusing on the impact of the Great Depression on economic doctrines. There is no doubt that the Great Depression exerted an enormous influence on economic thought, but the exact nature of its impact should be examined more carefully. In this chapter, I examine the transformation from a perspective which emphasizes the interaction between economic ideas and economic events, and the interaction between theory and policy rather than the development of economic theory. More specifically, I examine the evolution of what became known as macroeconomics after the Depression in terms of an ongoing debate among the “stabilizers” and their critics. I further suggest using four perspectives, or schools of thought, as measures to locate the evolution and transformation; the gold standard mentality, liquidationism, the Treasury view, and the real-bills doctrine. By highlighting these four economic ideas, I argue that what happened during the Great Depression was the retreat of the gold standard mentality, the complete demise of liquidationism and the Treasury view, and the strange survival of the real-bills doctrine. Each of those transformations happened not in response to internal debates in the discipline, but in response to government policies and real-world events.

Examines the management of quality from the perspective of organizational culture change. Discusses the nature of quality and the evolution of the management of quality in relation to key issues arising from the literature on organizational culture. It is found that total quality management (TQM) makes a number of assumptions about organizational culture. Adopts an integrationist perspective, with culture defined in terms of something an organization has, as opposed to something an organization is. Presents a tentative model of the relationship implied between TQM and organizational culture. A number of questions emerge, not least of which concern the strength and direction of this relationship. The culture perspective is likely to challenge some of the basic assumptions found in the TQM literature. In so doing, it may inform organizational attempts to raise levels of quality.

Total Quality Management (TQM), this framework proposes, can be achieved only when the organization develops the ability to cater to customers' needs, monitor the internal and external environments on an ongoing basis to obtain and disseminate information needed by empowered group decision makers, establish and maintain an atmosphere where there is strong vertical and horizontal communication, collaboration, and cooperation among individuals in internal units, as well as among individuals in external units, develop and maintain a bond and a “sense of ownership” among employees; and develop and maintain ongoing training programs.

The Sanitary Committee of a certain County Council, strong with the strength of recent creation, have lately been animated by a desire to distinguish themselves in some way, and, proceeding along the lines of least resistance, they appear to have selected the Public Analyst as the most suitable object for attack. The charge against this unfortunate official was not that he is incompetent, or that he had been in any way negligent of his duties as prescribed by Act of Parliament, but simply and solely that he has the temerity to reside in London, which city is distant by a certain number of miles from the much favoured district controlled by the County Council aforesaid. The committee were favoured in their deliberations by the assistance of no less an authority than the “Principal” of a local “Technical School”;—and who could be more capable than he to express an opinion upon so simple a matter? This eminent exponent of scientific truths, after due and proper consideration, is reported to have delivered himself of the opinion that “scientifically it would be desirable that the analyst should reside in the district, as the delay occasioned by the sending of samples of water to London is liable to produce a misleading effect upon an analysis.” Apparently appalled by the contemplation of such possibilities, and strengthened by another expression of opinion to the effect that there were as “good men” in the district as in London, the committee resolved to recommend the County Council to determine the existing arrangement with the Public Analyst, and to appoint a “local analyst for all purposes.” Thus, the only objection which could be urged to the employment of a Public Analyst resident in London was the ridiculous one that the composition of a sample of water was likely to seriously alter during the period of its transit to London, and this contention becomes still more absurd when it is remembered that the examination of water samples is no part of the official duty of a Public Analyst. The employment of local scientific talent may be very proper when the object to be attained is simply the more or less imperfect instruction of the rising generation in the rudiments of what passes in this country for “technical education”; but the work of the Public Analyst is serious and responsible, and cannot be lightly undertaken by every person who may be acquainted with some of the uses of a test‐tube. The worthy members of this committee may find to their cost, as other committees have found before them, that persons possessing the requisite knowledge and experience are not necessarily indigenous to their district. Supposing that the County Council adopts the recommendation, the aspirations of the committee may even then be strangled in their infancy, as the Local Government Board will want to know all about the matter, and the committee will have to give serious and valid reasons in support of their case.

We have repeatedly dealt with the question of the differences which are from time to time exhibited in the certificates issued by Public Analysts, when compared with those emanating from the Somerset House Laboratory in regard to the analyses of samples which purport to be representative portions of one and the same article, and we have shown that if due regard be given to the principles of evidence, it is not only wholly unjustifiable, but utterly absurd to conclude that such difference, as a matter of course, indicate error or carelessness on the part of the Public Analyst. In season and out of season we shall continue to expose the fallacies which underlie the abominably unjust assumption referred to, and to urge that in each case of the kind every possible step should be taken by those concerned on behalf of prosecuting authorities, to make all the conditions affecting the case as clear as they can be made to the lay mind.