Over the last several hundred years, local and national educational systems have evolved from relatively simple systems to incredibly complex, interdependent, policy-laden structures, to which many question their value, effectiveness, and direction they are headed. System Dynamics is a field of analysis used to guide policy and system design in…

Over the last decade, a growing consensus has developed that for our nation's students to succeed in twenty-first-century economic and civic life, high school graduation is no longer sufficient. Labor-market analyses have shown that high-wage positions increasingly require postsecondary education and training, and students must now graduate…

Performance-based funding is a system based on allocating a portion of a state's higher education budget according to specific performance measures such as course completion, credit attainment, and degree completion, instead of allocating funding based entirely on enrollment. It is a model that provides a fuller picture of how successfully…

Educational change is a process occurring through time, a systemic and dynamic phenomenon in which every action leads to reactions in related areas of the system, and a multidimensional phenomenon requiring examination from the perspective of several disciplines. The success of an innovation depends on how the change process is managed, how the…

The point is made that systems thinking should be combined with dialectical thinking and constructivist thinking for effective systems design and systems change. To establish a context, a set of assertions on "How the World Works" in regard to systems design and systems change in education is laid out, as value assumptions undergirding…

Compares educational technology and information systems (IS) and relates the histories of their adoption. Explains IS adoption paradigms, models and frameworks, and suggests similarities and differences between IS adoption/implementation and educational change; and discusses educational change and what can be learned from IS adoption models.…

Advocates a systems approach to designing educational systems in a changing world. The intellectual technology of systems design is outlined; and a design architecture is described that addresses definition of the new system, system specifications, key functions, organizational issues, and the systemic environment. Organizing perspectives for…

Change efforts should be guided with a systemic understanding of the context in which they are undertaken. Depending on the circumstance, or as the implementation effort progresses, it may be most effective to focus interventions on a particular component of the framework at a time. This ERIC digest presents a sequence for approaching the major…

Using the Kite (a framework for school development) as a diagnostic tool can help schools identify barriers to reform efforts by constructing an authentic picture of the school which can be measured against the qualities and practices of a learner centered environment. The paper describes organizational theories supporting the model. (SM)

A state educational indicator system being developed by the Pennsylvania Educational Policy Studies (PEPS) project at the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) is described. The extensive database that has been established as part of the PEPS project includes thousands of variables that are descriptive of the 500 Pennsylvania school districts.…

The system approach to planning and managing educational change features the use of an adaptive framework and a strategy for planned system change. The approach focuses management attention upon (1) relevant future states of expectations or goals, (2) present and future state variables and contexts, (3) human organization factors, and (4)…

Although instructional systems design (ISD) has traditionally been used as a micro-level model to design instructional interventions, there has been in recent years a trend toward using the systems approach for more macro-level applications such as performance technology and educational systems design. This paper provides an overview of…

Seven chapters exhibit some of the viewpoints occurring in discussions of educational restructuring or redesign. Most of the writers assert that schools cannot meet growth and quality requirements if they continue to operate within the framework of existing operating practices. Dramatic systemwide delivery improvements must be demanded. (SLD)

The system approach to planning and managing educational change features the use of an adaptive framework and a strategy for planned system change. The approach focuses management attention upon (1) relevant future states of expectation or goals, (2) present and future state variables and contexts, (3) human organization factors, and (4)…

Challenges identified by T. Bailey (1993) as obstacles to youth apprenticeship programs are accurate but do not justify the turn to alternative approaches he recommends. U.S.-style program can be built to overcome these difficulties if employer-worker collaboration can be fostered and institutional bases can be constructed. (SLD)