Abstract
As the decade of the 70s came to a close, more and more interest was generated about the future. Futurists speculated about what tomorrow would hold. Any number of forces, trends, and issues could affect the future. This descriptive research was designed: (1) to discover and describe the assumptions, concepts, and visions of a selected group of legislators and superintendents (educational leaders); (2) to contrast and analyze these assumptions, concepts, and visions; (3) to draw some implications for education in 1995. Methodology. Educational leaders were interviewed regarding their perceptions of the concepts, visions, and assumptions about the future of education in 1995. Data was also collected on eight orientations held toward the future. These data were analyzed through a matrix analysis and a Pearson product moment correlation was used to determine similarities and differences between the two groups of educational leaders. Findings. This study found that: (1) educational leaders held few common visions about the future of education, (2) superintendents had a significantly different assumption about the purpose of education than did legislators, (3) there were no major contradictions about the future of education, and (4) there were no major discontinuities envisioned for education in the next fifteen years. Implications. The lack of common visions or discontinuities could imply that education, as seen through the eyes of legislators and superintendents, will be much the same in 1995 as it is today. The differences in how superintendents and legislators view the purpose of education could account for laws that are incongruent with how schools are administered. If educational leaders are to shape education for tomorrow, they should mutually develop common visions of the future as well as develop an agenda on how to fulfill these visions.