Are education and efficiency antithetical? Does the pursuit of efficiency in education inevitably lead to misguided practices and measurement attempts that distort the character and purposes of education? Despite legitimate fears about misguided efforts at efficiency, history shows that efficiency and enlightened educational leadership can be…

Mixed methods research has increased in popularity over the past 20 years. Literature reveals that exploratory qualitative analysis followed by confirmatory survey research is common and concurrent studies outnumber longitudinal design. Longitudinal studies using quantitative and qualitative methods in sequence for exploratory purposes are rare,…

The direction quality assurance and its ancillary practices is taking in the transformation process in South Africa is discussed in this article. The article argues that it is incorrect to suggest that the higher education system has been captured by managerialism. While efficiency is an important driver of the system, the imperatives of redress…

Total Quality Management (TQM) is being adopted by many governmental entities, including public school districts. A basic tenet of quality improvement is that the customer, not the organization, defines quality. Other tenets are that the organization must satisfy the customer in order to best the competition; and that the organization must change…

This paper uses data from a survey of K-12 unit schools to fashion a measure of small school sustainability and relate it to variables pertinent to the rural context. Drawing on definitions of sustainable development and sustainable agriculture, this study proposes sustainability as a concept appropriate to schooling in general, and to small rural…

Some of the issues surrounding school productivity are discussed in this ERIC digest. It presents the results of early research that explored whether there is a relationship between educational funding and student outcomes. Some of the reasons behind schools' productivity problems are presented, including problems with unstable governance and the…

This paper presents two types of approaches to media selection--rational-choice approaches and social-influence approaches. It is argued that designers should combine the two types of approaches in a bottom-up/top-down media-selection process. As examples of the two types of approaches, two conceptual frameworks are described--task/media fit and…

Six papers on educational management systems and indicators development are presented in this document. Research was conducted under the Improving the Efficiency of Educational Systems (IEES) Project, which provided assistance in several countries, some of which include Indonesia, Botswana, Haiti, Guinea, and Nepal. The papers include:…

In the past two decades choice has become a major policy proposal for promoting efficiency in schooling. This paper argues that it would be both efficient and feasible to remove government from its present roles in school finance and pupil assignment. The first part examines the revenue side of school finance and identifies four types of…

Current theorizing in education, as in industry, is largely devoted to explaining trial-and-error, failure-tolerant, low-reliability organizations. This article examines changing societal demands on education and argues that effective responses to those demands require new and different organizational structures. Schools must abandon industrial…

This report focuses on the use of linear programming models to address the issues of how vocational rehabilitation (VR) resources should be allocated in order to maximize program efficiency within given resource constraints. A general introduction to linear programming models is first presented that describes the major types of models available,…

Provides student credit hour (SCH) production data and full-time equivalent (FTE) faculty values for physics departments for eight state institutions in Illinois. From this data a SCH/FTE "efficiency" ratio is calculated and implications for present staffing patterns and maintaining faculty size are discussed. (Author/CP)

Teacher input is essential to facility planning. A feasibility study also determines needs by focusing on community characteristics and needs, instructional efficiency, safety, and future plans. (MW)

This annual report includes major time series that reflect changes in farm production, production inputs, and production efficiency. Time series data are presented for the United States and, in most cases, for 10 farm production regions. The text highlights changes since the previous year or specified time period. In previous reports in this…

The purpose of this study was to identify the central values and the range of variability for costs associated with selecting and preparing books for microfilm preservation, filming, and maintaining quality control and adequate records. The study was based on data supplied by the libraries at the University of Chicago and Columbia University, the…