Several colleges and universities participate in the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Energy Star Buildings program, in which institutions commit to improving their buildings' energy efficiency and reducing energy costs. All participants must also be a Green Lights Program participant or agree to specific building-wide lighting upgrades. The…

Estimates the rates of return to overeducation in the United Kingdom, using the 1991 British Household Panel Survey. Describes three approaches to analyzing skill utilization and their returns. Analyzes characteristics of the overeducated and undereducated work force. Overeducation is part of an adjustment in the labor market and tends to…

Eric Hanushek's conclusion that money does not matter in public education is debatable. His latest meta-analysis reviews many articles from economics journals, while omitting several published in education journals. He finds no relationship between test results and spending, yet labels schools inefficient. In other research, the Annie Casey…

Suggests four criteria (efficiency, return on investment, incentives, and equity) for evaluating and comparing public programs for poor children, and provides an overview of information available on eight large federal programs using these criteria. Positive effects of some programs are noted, and policy recommendations the evidence supports are…

Applications of World Wide Web-style institutional intranets and browsers to provide and manage information in college personnel administration are examined. The intranet can facilitate use of more complex data structures, protect data security, allow tracking of information and forms, eliminate hard-copy manuals, maintain up-to-date schedules,…

Describes a study at Ball State University (Indiana) that compared local pre-cataloging authority control procedures with post-cataloging authority control procedures available through NOTIS (Northwestern Online Total Integrated System). Results show NOTIS authority control reduced redundancy and increased efficiency. Contains three tables and…

This study found both constant time delay and a most-to-least prompting strategy were effective in teaching 4 moderately mentally retarded 18-year-olds to operate a washing machine and dryer.The constant time delay procedure, however, was more efficient in terms of instructional time and number of instructional errors. (Author/DB)

If appropriate planning occurs, business officials can support site-based management. Districts need to develop new working relationships that appropriately balance the responsibility of the business office for district finances and support services with more site-based management at the school level. (MLF)

Delineating the current costs and quality of service of pupil transportation provides a basis for evaluating alternatives. With this, districts can identify the opportunities to (1) provide the current service more efficiently; (2) modify the current service parameters; and (3) provide service under a more efficient operating system. (MLF)

After school districts have purchased computer hardware and software, they still need to consider the costs of support and repair services, and the purchase of additional equipment. (MLF)

Efficiency wage models explain unemployment as a manifestation of the unavoidable incompleteness of the employment contract. In hiring workers, firms use education as a screen to determine the quantity and quality of the effort that a worker might exert in performing his or her duties. This generates a hierarchy of workers. (KDP)

At the 1994 annual meeting of the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), presentations and discussions indicated that college business officers are responding to their institutions' financial difficulties with innovative ways to reorganize, save money, and generate revenue. (Author/MSE)

Describes the use of the tetrachoric correlation for experimental research and hypothesis testing of the efficiency of computerized information searching. Highlights include recall, relevance, and precision in information retrieval; use of a spreadsheet; examples; and limitations. (Author/LRW)

Recent reform of Australia's higher education system has resulted in a much more direct relationship between government and universities. Although it is criticized as reducing institutional autonomy, the new interdependence of the entities reflects an official view of higher education as an invaluable economic resource and concerns about…

Three experiments involving 138 college students investigated why one type of graphic organizer (a matrix) may communicate interconcept relations better than an outline or text. Results suggest that a matrix is more computationally efficient than either outline or text, allowing the easier computation of relationships. (SLD)