In Ohio, Venture Capital grants are available to schools to support their school-improvement efforts. This paper presents findings of a study that examined building principals' openness to change in the 307 Ohio schools with Venture Capital Grants. The 307 principals received by mail the Inventory of Change in Organizational Culture (Dunham and…

This report examines the roles and functions of state coordinating and governing boards of higher education. Data are from a study reviewing 20 years' worth of data and a current survey. After an introductory section, the first section analyzes historical trends which suggest modest growth in appropriations over the period. Section 2, based on the…

Vermont state legislation provides additional funding to small schools--those enrolling fewer than 100 students. To meet legislative requirements, a study group examined costs, educational quality, and consolidation issues in Vermont's small schools. In 1996-97, Vermont had 50 small schools (16 percent of all public schools), primarily K-6…

This report is part of South Carolina's effort to move toward "100 percent performance funding" for the state's public colleges and universities and results from a task force's investigation of ways to assess critical thinking. The following eight major findings are reported: (1) policy makers must determine priorities; (2) critical…

This report presents findings of the third annual survey of state programs that link funding to campus performance, either in the form of performance budgeting or performance funding. The survey found that 30 states now have at least one of these two types of programs, up from 26 states the previous year, although some earlier programs have been…

The Illinois State Board of Education's Scientific Literacy Project provided extra funds to certain schools with the intent of creating demonstration schools useful as models for other schools to improve their science education programs. The study described in this document examined the impact of these funds on the target schools and attempted to…

The purpose of this study was to establish a profile of services to older people in Pennsylvania public libraries. A survey was distributed to 50 district library centers and headquarters of the state library and 50 independent public libraries. The response rate was 65%. Major findings of the study were the following: (1) 66.15% of respondents…

During the winter of 1988-89, a study was undertaken of state-aidable noncredit course offerings at the State University of New York (SUNY) community colleges. This type of offering, produced by allowing certain noncredit enrollments to generate aidable full-time equivalent students, has provided a wide variety of educational opportunities and has…

Information is presented on a study to determine which of several institutional characteristics are associated most closely with an institution's gift income and to determine which fund raising practices and programs are utilized in selected institutions. The study focused on public institutions with Carnegie classifications of Research I and II…

Higher education for prisoners, often the subject of public controversy, remains a crucial strategy in efforts to reduce recidivism and slow the growth of the nation's incarcerated population. New research conducted by the Institute for Higher Education Policy shows that corrections officials are finding innovative ways to support postsecondary…

Flexibility is a lever for change that occupies an increasingly prominent place in federal strategies for educational improvement. Flexibility assumes that local actors are in the best position to identify the most serious problems facing schools and students and to determine how to solve them. Consequently, these actors should be given greater…

This report examines states' appropriations to institutions of higher education, and reveals that there had been an aggregate reduction in state dollar support for higher education spending as the 1992 fiscal year began, with some respondents reporting reductions from the previous year's rate. It is noted that a deteriorating economy has resulted…

In October, 1979, a survey of students enrolled in noncredit Data Processing (DP) and Secretarial Science (SS) courses at Triton Community College was conducted to determine if conversion of noncredit adult education courses to regular college credit status would result in a substantial loss of students. Responses were obtained from 474 SS…

This report reviews special education costs and funding for Wisconsin public school districts, as well as the funding relationship between special education and regular education. In addition, it compares Wisconsin's method of allocating categorical aid to methods that other states use in allocating special education funding, and presents survey…

This study focuses on flexibility provisions in the Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP) provision of NCLB. Specifically, it addresses REAP Flex, a program that allows rural districts additional control over how to spend portions of their federal funding. REAP Flex is part of a series of NCLB flexibility initiatives aimed at rural schools.…