Educational leaders not only face moral and ethical decisions regarding their classrooms, schools, districts, and education institutions, but they also must consider the complexities and threats that impact their communities. In this unstable era of war, terrorism, natural disasters, accountability, and high stakes testing, this process is…

Several decades of research have suggested a meaningful relationship between time and learning, where the amount of time students spend engaged in learning is strongly associated with their level of achievement. Among schools that have expanded the day and/or year, researchers have found that such a strategy can be quite effective, especially with…

In this timely book, financial consultant and experienced college administrator Mike Townsley examines the financial and strategic resources that private colleges and universities must have in place to withstand the storm. Small college presidents, CFOs, planners, chief academic officers, and board members all have a hand on the tiller and will…

Discusses why customized financial aid packages designed to attract selected students to fill a desired niche can jeopardize a college's fiscal health. (EV)

It is helpful to know how to read a company's annual report if an individual is considering going to work for the company, investing in it, or selling to it. When reading an annual report, start at the back with the report of the independent certified public accountant and the footnotes. These can provide information that is not readily apparent…

Discusses how dire, long-term financial pressures for both public and private colleges and universities could lead to a fundamental restructuring of their organizational and learning systems around the most promising innovations in teaching and learning. Offers three organizing principles and seven transformative actions. (EV)

Reviews institutional responses to and budgeting requirements of retrenchment. Presents and discusses nine guidelines for community colleges dealing with retrenchment, related to action rather than reaction, participatory budgeting, reexamination of priorities, consistently derived comparisons, financial projections, outcome measures, planning…

Discusses five of the most common money management pitfalls in operating child care centers and suggests some ways to avoid these pitfalls. (MP)

Advice on college and university endowment investing includes a general recommendation for caution and restraint and specific suggestions for approaching popular economic forecasts and assumptions, incentive fees, risk diversification, foreign options, especially in Europe, and energy investment. (MSE)

Outlines techniques for eliminating risk exposures to help schools curtail extra financial expenses resulting from theft and vandalism losses through a well developed risk management policy. (MD)

Fourteen options are presented for consideration when having to make budget cuts in educational programs. To spread the burden of budget cutting evenly across the programs, break the budget into percentages and then reduce each area by the same percentage. It is important, though, to cut the excess and not the core of the program. (MD)

Based on the view that athletics are a valuable part of the school program, this article suggests where budget cuts in the athletic program might be made. (Author/JM)

Professional psychologists considering becoming consultants to school systems need to address the problems of getting contracts, managing referrals, reporting results, and handling financial and legal matters. Contracts, in the author's experience, are won less by knowing administrators than by offering low prices and performing well on initial…

Financial exigency can be avoided with understanding, courage and determination, and cooperation and planning on the part of administrators. Warning signs of impending danger and a checklist of 99 ways to avoid it are presented. (MLW)

Some solutions to surplus space usage in school buildings. (MLF)