The future of instructional research, at least in the present economic climate, is indistinct. This report considers the option of combining within a single study the needs of policy makers and the commitment to academic research. The papers in this report, through illustration of research conducted within a policy framework, identify problems…

To help school boards, educators, and citizens in Connecticut do more comprehensive district planning, this handbook introduces the planning, evaluation, and resource management (PERM) model and describes how it works. Section 1 of the document gives an overview of the planning process, defines comprehensive planning, and answers general questions…

To measure the extent of racial or sexual discrimination in resource allocation programs of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the concept of difference indicators was adopted. The difference indicator is a quantitative index that expresses the relationship between actual and expected quantities of any given trait or object. In the…

This report discusses trends and issues related to developmental/remedial education in the United States; examines developmental/remedial education efforts in Nevada's public colleges and universities; and presents the results of a study of developmental programs in the two universities and four community colleges in the University of Nevada…

This collection of essays examines strategies to strengthen financial management in the community colleges from the perspective of college finance and administrative support officers. Part I focuses on selected role functions that college business officers perform, containing "Integrating Academic Planning and Budgeting," by Byron N. McClenney and…

This survey of public opinion about Chicago Public Schools charts responses in the following areas: (1) general evaluation of the public schools; (2) grading the staff; (3) the biggest problems facing Chicago schools; (4) a range of proposed reforms; and (5) finances. Characteristics of the respondents and public school parents also are plotted.…

Differences among statewide coordinating boards/agencies and consolidated governing boards/agencies in level of authority for budgeting, program review/approval, and planning for public senior institutions were studied. The potential for effective linkage or integration of these activities was also explored. Forty-five state agencies completed…

A national project designed to examine issues of budget reform and quality improvement in higher education is described. The focus is state-level budget practices and their impact on institutions. Most of the funding for quality improvement has been categorical: a small percent of the budget is set aside to achieve particular quality or…

This tenth annual report of the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS)--a permanent, independent agency in the Executive Branch--covers the period which marks the end of the first decade of the Commission's programs, and therefore a review of past accomplishments and a brief history of the origins of NCLIS are included.…

The problems of resource allocation and management within open learning systems in colleges of further and higher education in Britain are discussed in this paper, with particular focus on the deployment of academic staff. First, the components of open learning systems are outlined; e.g., providing materials for students' private study, grading…

This monograph reviews the literature pertaining to inservice education and summarizes its contents relating to several broad themes: planning and instructional concerns in inservice education, problems relating to administration and coordination of inservice programs, and elements common to successful programs. The literature of inservice…

Shrinking resources were a primary reason for the development of systematic program evaluation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, beginning in 1971. The first three programs in the evaluation cycle were also scheduled for accreditation visits by their respective professional associations. Although the three programs are generally…

This study is an attempt to obtain a national assessment that could help inform federal policy. The study looks at all the states in order to obtain an assessment on a consistent basis, is based solely on results of reform--disparities in the distribution of education funds, and examines not only the state's status in a recent time period but also…

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…

Current approaches to need assessment belong to one of three theoretical orientations: the rationalistic perspective in which need is predicated on the existence of some pathology or deviance from the rational ideal; (2) the empirical position where need is conceived as deviance from a normative or observed state of good health and well-being; and…