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…

The use of systems analysis in transforming a graduate program in educational technology from a lecture-based system to a self-instructional one is described. Several operational research techniques are illustrated. A bibliography of 10 items is included. (CHC)

The State Planning System (SPS) is a policy-oriented management tool intended to help analyze the interrelated effects of alternative policies and their relationships to state goals. Two pilot-test case studies are described--the SPS tuition policy evaluation conducted in Colorado, and New York's SPS evaluation of the applicability of large scale…

The six papers in this publication discuss how reasonable planning processes can be established and how budgeting procedures can be related to the wider planning process. In the first selection, K. George Pedersen establishes the current context of educational planning and decisionmaking with emphasis on economic implications, and he outlines…

As traditional medical school curricula began to be criticized in the 1950s, various alternatives were proposed, including the organ-system based curriculum (organized around the organ systems of the body) and the problem-based curriculum (organized around clinical problems). From an open systems perspective, any such medical school curriculum…