Education reform has been on a new path over the last 15 years; a path that leads to more accountability, more choice for students and parents, highly qualified teachers, as well as, best practices in instruction. In an effort to move along the path of reform and as a result of previous reform, the 2004 reauthorization of IDEA reviewed the field…

The use of quantitative decision making tools provides the decision maker with a range of alternatives among which to decide, permits acceptance and use of the optimal solution, and decreases risk. Training line administrators in the use of these tools can help school business officials obtain reliable information upon which to base district…

Soft constraints hypothesis (SCH) is a rational analysis approach that holds that the mixture of perceptual-motor and cognitive resources allocated for interactive behavior is adjusted based on temporal cost-benefit tradeoffs. Alternative approaches maintain that cognitive resources are in some sense protected or conserved in that greater amounts…

Needs assessment is a young and growing field. Needs assessments contribute to effective educational planning and help educators improve services to students. Needs assessment can be used to identify goals and objectives, but probably has the most utility as a problem-focusing strategy that includes the following sequence: (1) identification of…

Describes research at Leicester Polytechnic Institute (UK) which examined possible applications of decision support system tools in libraries; in particular, this research explored the role of decision support systems in relation to the development of resources allocation modelling. (five references) (MAB)

One hundred twenty-seven participants at a June 1975 symposium in Squaw Valley, California, made use of a prescribed problem-solving process in order to originate a number of parts of a total staff development effort for a simulated community college. The developmental stages in the process included brainstorming, needs assessment, resource…

The time has come to reexamine the role of industrial arts in the high schools. Our society is no longer in the industrial era but rather in the post-industrial era which is characterized by pressing social problems. Solutions must be found for the problems of pollution, power generation, housing, transportation, communication, conservation, more…

The student traceback model is described and is used to demonstrate various concepts relative to institutional research methodology. The methodology of the problem-solving institutional researcher includes a wide spectrum of how-to's: how to anticipate issues in higher education and estimate their practical institutional impact; how to develop the…

School administrators who must make decisions that determine the direction for vocational education need empathy and flexibility in applying the principles and practices inherent in vocational education. Effective administration requires the utilization of management fundamentals combined with identification and selection of alternatives for…

This publication contains four conference addresses, responses to those addresses, and a synopsis of eight discussion group reports. The report begins with a paper on staff resources in secondary schools, then considers the problem of assessing the staffing needs of secondary schools and ensuring an adequate supply of qualified secondary teachers,…

Single- and double-loop organizational learning are discussed in the context of higher education retrenchment. A model of the research university illuminates impediments to internal resource reallocation, program elimination, and integrative leadership, and suggests the need for alternatives to usual efforts to increase efficiency while retaining…

The importance of myth and ritual in understanding the use of computer simulators in higher education is considered. Myths are commonly held beliefs that maintain social solidarity and reduce ambiguity; rituals serve a similar function, but they involve actions in addition to words. Examples of common myths and rituals are used to illustrate the…