When it became apparent that change was necessary to alter Hatboro Horsham High School's (Pennsylvania) downward trend in grades and SAT scores, the school adopted "intensive scheduling," which is built on the 85-minute, 5-period day. Intensive scheduling proved very successful, and the school's statistics have improved greatly. (KDP)

Explains traditional notions of efficient behavior; applies them to libraries and information centers; discusses how we measure efficiency; describes data envelopment analysis, a mathematical model designed for use with nonprofit organizations to measure efficiency through a weighting scheme; and discusses its use in school media centers.…

Recent improvements in corporate credit card programs have allowed colleges and universities to let end users make their own small dollar purchases. This makes purchasing small items quicker and more convenient and eliminates purchasing department efforts, achieving significant operational savings. However, careful control of the system is…

Discusses the amount of time necessary to access, read, and annotate articles in bound journals and on 35-mm microfilm. Journal articles require an average time of 5.12 minutes to retrieve and read from bound volumes versus 6.17 minutes from microfilm. Abstracts from "Dissertation Abstracts" require an average of 1.9 minutes from bound volumes…

Describes five principles for cost-effective clinical practice: efficient use of self, efficient use of equipment and supplies, delegation of work, critical path method, and organization of the environment. (SK)

In three task settings differing in difficulty and turnover rate in a truck assembly plant, structured on-the-job training (OJT) provided twice the financial benefits as unstructured OJT and required one-fifth the mastery time. Turnover rate had a greater effect on benefit size than did task difficulty. (SK)

Reviews and analyzes the major educational reforms initiated in Connecticut during the last 10 years, employing economics terminology. Describes selected initiatives from the 1986 Education Enhancement Act. Discusses the effects of four state commissions with input from key interest groups on Connecticut educational policy. State board of…

Planning can help college public relations officials make the most of their time and energy. One approach includes reviewing institutional mission and strategic plan; setting department goals; identifying and targeting audiences; establishing interdepartmental links; and setting out action, crisis, budget, and evaluation plans in writing. (MSE)

The analysis of educational outcomes and evaluation of their efficiency depend on three elements of organizational behavior analysis: costly information, decentralized advantages in defraying information costs, and incentives. This paper suggests several research directions for educational economists to apply these tools to analyze educational…

Productivity and efficiency in education are defined and their dynamics analyzed. It is proposed that improvement of productivity comes not from working harder but from working smarter. Key contributors to improvement are identified including collaborative planning and work organization, skill utilization and output-based planning, and use of…

A discussion of the current economics of the United Kingdom's higher education system outlines conceptual models used by economists for evaluating a system's efficiency and applies them to assess the effect of recent funding changes. It is concluded that increased emphasis on research is adversely affecting university teaching quality. (MSE)

Investigates why employers (particularly those valuing technical progress as important for performance) share general training costs and returns. Workers stay with a firm paying a wage below their opportunity wage if it continually provides additional training so that the prospect of future wages outweighs the short-run gain from quitting and…

Discusses communication in research and development, hypotheses of efficiency, and implications for information science. Topics addressed include cognitive situations of individuals and groups; the use of information; the adequacy of available information; the inefficiency of scientific communication; and the unpredictable impact of the same…

Elements in the effort to make the annual Nova University (Florida) audit more time efficient included gaining agreement with the auditors for a specific closing date; coordinating efforts of various departments involved; identifying and eliminating major obstacles; streamlining procedures when needed; and continuous coordination and monitoring of…

Grants management staff at the Bureau of Health Professions, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, used existing computer technology and staff expertise to automate several steps in one grant program. Creative use of computers and software resulted in significant time savings, better staff use, and recording of data to improve grants…