This paper reports on a study that adopted a systematic approach to school-level early warning. The study examined areas where research consistently shows schools commonly experience decline: (1) leadership stability; (2) talent management; (3) organizational culture; (4) financial operations; and (5) instructional programming. Rather than relying…

Using hierarchical multiple regression analysis, this study examined the factors that contribute to the variation in students' subjective perceptions of the value of their tuition dollars. This study utilized data on 6,322 undergraduate students from 11 institutions in the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) who completed the…

In uncertain economic times, universities have taken steps to address financial problems by including the use of business models. In 2009, the California State University (CSU) system implemented furloughs of a 10% pay reduction and 18 days removed from the academic calendar. Faculty in 16 CSU schools of social work participated in a Web-based…

Facing substantial financial pressure, many districts close schools in order to preserve solvency and improve student outcomes. Using a new longitudinal data set on all non-Cook County Illinois schools, we examine the determinants of high school closure decisions from 1986 through 2006. Our dataset combines information from a wide variety of…

This article considers the role of higher education in state budgets. It empirically models and tests the balance wheel hypothesis in a robust framework. The balance wheel model posits that in good economic times, higher education is an attractive area for states to fund and tends to be funded at a higher rate than other state budget categories.…

This study was designed to explore fiscal interrelationships that underlay capital outlay funding, including the differences between rural and non-rural school districts. The study additionally focused on the relationships between various capital outlay funding components (capital outlay expenditures per pupil, net assessed valuation per pupil,…

The purpose of this research is to investigate factors that contribute to fiscal problems for public school districts in order to develop a model using benchmarks for maintaining fiscal health. School district revenues and expenditures are analyzed in order to identify patterns that can be used to predict financial stress. Of the 606 school…

This research study examined 25 economic, demographic and social, financial, governance, and geographic variables in 39 large urban school districts in order to measure the variables' ability to (1) distinguish between school districts that were fiscally stressed and those which were not and (2) predict bond ratings of large urban school…

Based on a review of the literature and ongoing research, this four-part monograph provides a composite profile of the enrollment and financial status of the nation's community colleges. After introductory material describing research methodology, Part I analyzes community college enrollment by sex, examines the increase in the number of adult…