Citizens Committee Research Articles

New York City's Failed Teacher Selection Project: Political Reality Trumps Educational Research, 1947–1953

This article describes the history of the failed New York City Teacher Selection Project (TSP; 1947–1953), a collaborative effort to replace the city's teacher licensing tests, which emphasized subject matter knowledge with personality tests. The TSP was a partnership between the Board of Examiners and the Citizens Committee for Children, and its members included pioneers from the field of child psychiatry. The author draws on primary documents to detail the TSP's research and shows how the tests that the group designed reflected individual members’ commitment to progressive education and the ethos of mental hygiene. In addition, the article shows how the TSP embraced an experimental scale created to measure applicants’ authoritarian tendencies. The author concludes that the TSP's efforts to influence teacher licensing failed largely because members chose to work with like-minded colleagues in isolation from the political realities of New York City and the public school system.

Role of urban governance in the process of bus system reform in Seoul

The Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) executed an innovative bus system reform in July 2004. The bus lines were reorganized as trunk, feeder, and circular routes; and bus numbers were arranged into eight areas. The monopolized route systems were reorganized as a semi-public operation, with a route tendering system to induce competition. A unified fare system was introduced taking into account transfers between buses; buses and the subway, and other modes of public transportation, all with the development of a new transportation card system. Exclusive median bus lanes were constructed in three major corridors. The main purposes of this paper are to (1) discuss the background and necessity of the bus system reform; (2) review the composition and functions of the Bus System Reform Citizen Committee (BSRCC), which instigated the reform; (3) analyze the role of BSRCC as a type of urban governance; and (4) provide policy implications. The study employs three techniques—literature reviews of the realities of bus service, in-depth interviews with stakeholders to analyze the roles and benefits of the BSRCC, and participant observation via a BSRCC member. All these help to shed light on a new form of urban governance which broke from the execution lead only by officials of the SMG.

Repairing Broken Promises In California

Repairing Broken Promises In California

The Multiple Meanings of Advancing Democracy

There was no NAACP chapter in Wharton, Texas, in 1954. Like some areas of Mississippi early in the following decade, the naked violence of Jim Crow made it impossible to maintain any organized civil rights presence at all in that city southwest of Houston. But there was a local school principal named Thomas Lane Pink, a former professional baseball player in the Leagues, who, beginning in 1952, launched a quiet campaign to enroll black students at Wharton Junior College. There was also his friend, Dr. G. M. Wilkins, president of an NAACP chapter in a county 175 miles to the north, with whom Pink organized a Negro citizen's committee to integrate Victoria Junior College there. Having succeeded in that case in 1954, Wilkins and Pink told the Houston Post later that the NAACP had had no direct

Procuring expertise: the case of local government water and sewer rate analyses

Local governments are often forced to purchase expertise for non-recurring analyses, such as rate setting for water and sewer services, because it is not cost-effective for these governments to maintain such expertise in-house or because independent analyses are preferred by watch-dog agencies or mandated by state statutes. However, like many ostensibly value-neutral analytical studies, these studies inevitably entail policy choices of which elected policy makers may not be aware. External analysts may not be aware of idiosyncratic factors, and they apply boilerplate perspectives that may not be responsive to local preferences. These perspectives limit policy options, although they may appear to be value-neutral. Policy makers must take an active role in these analytical studies in order to ensure that local preferences and specific factors are considered. Citizen committees comprised of residents with the necessary expertise, or experts from local colleges and universities may be able to provide the necessary oversight.

“Making Democracy Real”

This article examines how an interracial coalition of radical teachers from the Teachers Union of New York City and community activists from the Citywide Citizens Committee on Harlem promoted Black history and intercultural curriculum materials and worked side-by-side with parents for school reform in the New York City schools during the 1930s and early 1940s. Their efforts to develop more culturally responsive schools in Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant were derailed by the late 1940s in the wake of the red-baiting of progressive scholars and teacher union activists during the cold war era.

Ronald Reagan and the Struggle for Black Dignity in Cinema, 1937-1953

Previous articleNext article No AccessRonald Reagan and the Struggle for Black Dignity in Cinema, 1937-1953Stephen VaughnStephen Vaughn Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The Journal of African American History Volume 87, Number 1Winter 2002The Past Before Us A journal of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/JAAHv87n1p83 Views: 36Total views on this site PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Responding to community expectations on corporate environmental performance: How to develop effective citizen advisory panels

Corporations are facing increasing pressure to improve their environmental performance. Many are turning to citizen advisory panels (CAPs) as a way improve their decision- making and enhance their public accountability. CAPs are committee of citizens who meet regularly with managers to discuss environmental and other community issues associated with their companies. These panels allow organizations to recieve the type proactive environmental decisions. CAPs also can enble a company to communicate to and receive input from the community in a more controlled and confidential mannier than many other public processes. While CAPs offer many potential advantages, there are also a number of challenges that must be met before their benefits can be realized. This article describes a number of steps that companies should take to develop effective CAPs, including: forming the panels, selecting members, conducting meetings and communicating to citizen members. In addition, the authors discuss some of the lessons learned, including how to ensure that CAPs are operated in a manner that truly serves the interests of both the community and the company.

Environmental Conflict over Waste Management and its Implications: The Case of Kimpo Metropolitan Landfill

Nimby has become a very familiar word to people as well as academics or policy makers due to growing conflicts over LULUs in Korea. The progress of democratization and the introduction of local autonomy over the last decade contributed to Nimby syndrom. Nimby was often criticized as selfish, narrow, and local parochial protest having no regard for the collective interest. The negative view describes Nimby as the result of a social dilemma by assuming that the facility is socially desirable as a public good. If, however, the public good assumption is questioned, an assurance game may be a better representation of Nimby conflicts. Local struggles against waste management in recent years in Korea illustrate that people are more concerned about incineration or landfill technology and question the post-treatment waste policy. They are not just Nimbys but the legitimate expressions of environmental and political concerns. Environmental conflicts are created in the process that the communities address qualities of their places under uncertainty. Kimpo Metropolitan Landfill is the representative case of a utilitarian approach which causes spatial separation of benefits and costs for waste management. The conflicts between the Metropolitan landfill and other municipalities were understood as another Nimby to try to protect their own turf. However, this obscures the structural constraints of existing waste policy in which the communities are situated. Activism of the Metropolitan Landfill Citizen's Committee contributed to democratization of policy process and reorientation of policy structure by putting prevention as a primary goal.

Unterschiede und Gemeinsamkeiten bei der Durchsetzung der Reformation in den Hansestädten Wismar, Rostock und Stralsund

Schildhauer argued that in the Hanse cities Wismar, Rostock, and Stralsund a civic movement (institutionalized as a committee of citizens) and the Reformation movement operated hand-in-hand. In Stralsund, however, a civic movement and its committee (which fought high taxation) wavered for two years (1523-25) between the old and the new faith. When in April of 1525 the Reformation officially took place, it was the result of Bildersturm and Kiostersturm. In order to avoid that certain plebeian groups would create chaos in the city, the council and the committee felt compelled finally to take the initiative in religious-ecclesiastical matters. And in Rostock the Reformation movement developed over a period of eight years (1523-1531), and did so without any support by a citizens' committee. Only the situation in Wismar confirms Schildhauer's presentation. In that city developed some sort of cooperation of the civic movement and the Reformation movement. In 1529 the council of Wismar and in 1531 the council of Rostock officially adopted the new faith. Yet notwithstanding this switch to the new faith, both cities were safe havens for members of the old church until the 1550s. This rather slow development of the Reformation in Wismar and Rostock was the result of the policies of the territorial princes, who were more influential in these two cities than in the more independent Stralsund. The events in Wismar and Rostock suggest the existence of some sort of religious plurality. In the case of Wismar the value of this suggestion is strengthened by two facts: Wismar harboured a large congregation of Schwenckfeldians; the theological quarrels among the Protestants made the victory of the Reformation in Wismar difficult. Not the city Reformation but the territorial Reformation through the process of confessionalization changed the situation in Wismar and Rostock. The events in these two cities should force us to reexamine the thesis that the city had a quasi-inborn tend

The HIV/AIDS grants economy in New York City, 1983-1992.

The HIV/AIDS grants economy in New York City, 1983-1992.

A citizen's approach to integrated river basin management

This paper describes the success of an ad hoc citizen group in developing an integrated water resource plan for the Santa Fe River in the high desert of New Mexico. Much of the time the Santa Fe River, which runs through the centre of town, is dry because of impoundments for water supply. Water management responsibilities in the area are divided between eight government agencies. Each agency has its own narrowly perceived agenda for managing that aspect for which it is responsible. It was apparent that a holistic approach to water management was sorely needed. An ad hoc citizen committee was formed without government support (either technical or financial), to attempt to bring some rational planning to the use of existing water resources in the growing community.

A citizen's approach to integrated river basin management

This paper describes the success of an ad hoc citizen group in developing an integrated water resource plan for the Santa Fe River in the high desert of New Mexico. Much of the time the Santa Fe River, which runs through the centre of town, is dry because of impoundments for water supply. Water management responsibilities in the area are divided between eight government agencies. Each agency has its own narrowly perceived agenda for managing that aspect for which it is responsible. It was apparent that a holistic approach to water management was sorely needed. An ad hoc citizen committee was formed without government support (either technical or financial), to attempt to bring some rational planning to the use of existing water resources In the growing community.

The Stages of Age: The Growth of Senior Theatre

the elderly. As Marc Kaminsky writes in the introduction to Remembered Lives: Even as this writing cites and valorizes the old people's cultural creativity, describing it in terms of cultural resistance, it represses the actual cultural history in and through which they became the people they are. (1992:47) Myerhoff's work parallels a similar trend among theatre artists working with the elderly in the 1970s and early '8os that tended to focus on the therapeutic effects of dramatic activities for older adults. In the early 1970s, the field of theatre arts began to reflect changing attitudes toward the elderly and to examine theatre's potential contribution to the fight against ageism. Practitioners, who had for decades been successfully using creative drama with children, began adapting their techniques for the elderly. In 1972, the Georgia Gerontological Society hired a professional drama teacher to lead a creative drama workshop for the elderly in Atlanta, marking what McDonough describes as one of the earliest recorded instances of utilizing creative drama with people over sixtyfive (I98I:3). According to McDonough, between 1974 and 1976 the movement of creative drama for the elderly spread in workshops across the country. During the same time, three major theatre associations also took notice of the movement: the American Community Theatre Association formed the Senior Citizen Committee; the Senior Adult Theatre Committee formed within the Children's Theatre Association of America; and in 1973, under the direction of Vera Mowry Roberts, the American Theatre Association (ATA) launched the Senior Adult Theatre Project (SATP), a committee organized to investigate the state of theatre for retirees. In 1979, SATP published Older Americans on Stage, a small handbook that charted the activities of senior theatres across the United States and called for more research in the field. A handbook of models for senior theatre programs entitled Senior Adult Theatre followed in 1981 under the editorship of Roger Cornish and C. Robert Kase, a member of the original SATP committee. Other handbooks published in the same time period were 2. The new 1994 logo of the Geritol Frolics reflected their bases in vaudeville and musical revues. (Courtesy of the Geritol Frolics)

The police card discord

Cohen records a historic conflict ending in the 1960s between musicians and the police in New York. Harassed musicians and performers were joined by a 'Citizen's Committee' of famous writers and publishers to fight the City Police Department's arbitrary rules and regulations against musicians, performers, and other employees of hotels, restaurants, and cabarets, and its powerful highly publicized 'law and order' Commissioner Stephen Kennedy. Among the musicians were Bud Powell, JJ Johnson, Duke Ellington, Nina Simone, and Johnny Richards. Important social issues dominated several trials, detailed in this book. Ultimately, the musicians and entertainers won. The author writes from personal experience, since he was attorney for the musicians, the entertainers, and the Citizen's Committee.

Combating terrorism: Report to the committee of legal affairs and citizens’ rights of the European Parliament

This study traces the history of the European Parliament's efforts to deal with international terrorism from 1975 through 1988. It also examines the European Convention on the Suppression of Terrorism, efforts at intergovernmental cooperation (the Dublin Agreement, TREVI, the European Political Cooperation), anti‐terrorist legislation, and extradition. It is argued that the establishment of a European judicial area is essential in a unified Europe, so as to overcome the legal and procedural barriers that exist between nations. The political and legal spheres must develop in parallel, necessitating a harmonization of legislation and increased coordination of the judiciary and of security forces. The essay concludes that creating a European Court would resolve the dilemma of countries refusing either to extradite or try a suspect. In such cases, the suspect would be tried before the European court.

The Citizens Commission on AIDS: A Private-Sector Response to an Epidemic

The Citizens Commission on AIDS for New York City and Northern New Jersey was created by a consortium of foundations to stimulate private- sector leadership in the region. Its activities included creating and seeking endorsements for a set of principles on AIDS and the workplace, advocat ing more drug-treatment facilities and community-based alternatives to hospital care, and continuing support for prevention and education. The commission format has advantages as well as disadvantages, which are explored in this case study.

THE RESTON (VIRGINIA) LAKE-USE SURVEY: PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS AND MANAGEMENT IMPLICATIONS

: A public attitude survey was developed by a citizen committee and mailed to all residences (14,747) in the planned, suburban community of Reston, Virginia, which is responsible for maintaining four small, recreational impoundments. Over 18 percent of survey forms were returned, and characteristics of the survey sample suggest that the suite of respondents was representative of the Reston community as a whole. Of those respondents indicating a preferred lake use, 48 percent chose walking or looking as most important; boating as second at 27 percent; and fishing was third, favored by only 8 percent. Citizens feel strongly (94 percent) that the lakes are valuable community assets. Appearance was the characteristic most valued by 62 percent of respondents, and 58 percent considered degradation of water quality either the first or second most important ecological issue affecting local lakes. These findings provide a decisive public mandate for lake management activities related to visual quality. In response to this survey, the Reston Association, a homeowners' organization responsible for the lakes, increased public access of visual enjoyment, intensified litter control, expanded activities in public education on lake management and ecology, and continued a long-term program of water quality monitoring.

Graduate Medical Education in the United States

<h3>INTRODUCTION</h3> This annual report on graduate medical education in the United States for the 1986-1987 academic year contains data on programs accredited by the Accreditation Council on Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), by specialty and by region, and provides information on some characteristics of the persons in these programs. In November 1986, the ACGME through the Residency Review Committee for Internal Medicine accredited programs in nine subspecialties of internal medicine. This action added 1427 new programs to the ACGME system. <h3>RESIDENT AND RELATED TERMS</h3> In the medical education community each of the terms<i>intern, resident</i>, and<i>fellow</i>is used with various meanings. At times the generic term<i>trainee</i>is used to circumvent the ambiguity. Historically, the first year of graduate medical education was called an<i>internship</i>. In 1975, the American Medical Association House of Delegates accepted (on advice from its Council on Medical Education) the recommendation of the Citizens Commission on

Social compromise and social metrics

In the context of constitutional design, a committee of citizens' representatives proposes (social choice) axioms. The outcome should not necessarily be the aggregation rule, or rules, satisfying each of the axioms. Alternative procedures are recommended for aggregating a set of axioms into a single summary axiom. The summary axiom generates a single social decision function when a social metric is applied.