Describes the library renovation project of the MITRE Corporation's Washington Center Library in which limited space was stretched and made more efficient through the collaboration of library management, architect, and contractor. (Author/JD)

Rented remote computer terminals are being used in a pilot program that has reduced the amount of time school officials spend doing routine clerical duties. (Author/MLF)

Arguing that problems associated with the inter-relationships between money spent and educational effectiveness are not in surmountable, this paper addresses: setting goals and identifying measures of effectiveness; determining program effectiveness in relation to the goals of education; and determining cost effectiveness. Pennsylvania Department…

The results of running nine chemistry searches on SDC, BRS, and LRS indicated performance was not markedly different for general subject searches, but costs varied. (Author)

A model demonstrating how performance incentives may encourage cream skimming (selecting participants with a high likelihood of success) was applied to data from 16 Job Training Partnership Act training centers. Short-term performance measures were weakly and perversely related to long-term impacts, but efficiency gains/losses from skimming were…

Investigated efficiency of Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs). Calculated efficiency based on resources available and service units produced. Results demonstrated extent of inefficiency in agencies and how efficiency of individual AAAs can be improved relative to peer agencies. Analysis of organizational type, size, and rural-urban differences…

Describes a web-based project management (WBPM) for university construction projects and the two approaches for establishing this type of system. Also highlighted are how a WBPM can improve project delivery by reducing project lost time, system comparisons, and project cost savings generated by a WBPM. (GR)

A review of applications of motion study in developmental disabilities identifies two eras of research focus in the 1990s: (1) studies establishing the effectiveness and efficiency of tasks designed with motion study principles and (2) studies examining the interaction between motion study-based task designs and other variables such as choice,…

Discussion of organizational pain and the need for change focuses on situational analysis as a method for successful change implementation. Topics include the influence of pleasure as well as pain; determining departmental effectiveness; identifying barriers to efficiency; and developing an action plan for improvement. (LRW)

Shares experiences and lessons learned by chief information officers of large universities about enterprise resource planning (ERP). Specifically, provides a framework for approaching an ERP that could save universities millions of dollars. (EV)

People who advocate the privatization of public enterprises generally maintain that these enterprises, compared with private enterprises, have the following shortcomings: (1) public enterprises do not produce in response to consumer needs; (2) they use too much capital on inefficient production; (3) production often experiences breakdowns and…

The goal of this study was to estimate the effects of district efficiency on student achievement in Michigan with the hope that objective analysis might serve to ease progress through the troublesome political process any transition to an adequacy-based school finance model will encounter. This study draws upon the methodology used by Phelps and…

The present paper starts by discussing the principles of public funding of universities. The size of the social returns to investment in education gives an indication regarding the most efficient use of resources, while the difference between the private and the social rates relates to issues of equity. The available evidence is contrasted to…

Research on graphic symbol learning suggests that symbols with a greater visual resemblance to their referents (greater iconicity) are more easily learned. The iconicity hypothesis has not yet been explored within the intervention protocol of the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS). Within the PECS protocol, participants do not point to a…

This study explores two specific cases of institutional mergers in the field of higher education. The two cases took place in China in the 1990s. One of the cases might be labeled a vertical merger and the other a horizontal merger. The former simply implies a merger between higher education institutions with equal status and the same level of…