This dissertation considers the effects of national rankings, specifically the 2010 National Research Council (NRC)'s Data-Based Assessment of Research-Doctorate Programs, on higher education institutions' behavior. National research studies of graduate education require significant resources and data, yet it is uncertain how universities make…

Presents three different, complementary statistical models for predicting faculty tenure dynamics, using data from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Massachusetts). The difference equation model exactly describes future behavior but requires complete specification. The Markov-chain model can predict the full life-cycle of tenure from initial age…

Presents methods for assessing the impact and economic viability of federal equal-educational-opportunity programs, particularly in higher education. Techniques for gathering needed data and analyzing them are offered in the context of a hypothetical community college Veterans Upward Bound (VUB) program and two real VUB programs. (MSE)

A study analyzed characteristics of 392 University of Dayton (Ohio) students borrowing through the Perkins Loan Program to discover their relative impact on loan default behavior, and developed a model to help predict individual potential defaulters. Financial aid policy recommendations aimed at reducing default costs at the institution are…

The reasons Emporia State University (Kansas) selected American College Testing Program composite scores only to identify freshman recipients of a no-need scholarship are discussed. First-semester performance of recipients with discrepant preadmission scores are used to support a recommendation that a weighted combination of pre-admission variates…

Two studies illustrate how omitting faculty rank as a predictor variable from gender equity studies of faculty salaries can lead to incorrect conclusions about gender discrimination. One uses hypothetical data constructed so there is no gender difference in salary, but omission of academic rank skews the results. The second uses data from a…

The nation's 50 flagship universities serve disproportionately fewer low-income and minority students than in the past, according to this fifth report in the Education Trust's series on college results. Students in the entering and graduating classes at these schools look less and less like the state populations those universities were created to…

This paper analyzes a research project that maps implementation efforts of comprehensive and mandated change at the primary school level in The Netherlands. In examining this large-scale national reform program, the report deals with schools whose innovation efforts acquired funding from the central education department in return for their local…