Focusing on improvement is different than focusing on quality, quantity, customer satisfaction, and productivity. This paper discusses Open System Theory, and suggests ways to change large systems. Changing a system (meaning the way all the parts are connected) requires a considerable amount of data gathering and analysis. Choosing the proper…

California's Employment Training Panel was created in 1982 to work in partnership with the state's businesses, labor unions, and government to provide training funds to California businesses. In 1995, the Employment Training Panel's administrative practices, strategic planning efforts, and contracting policies and practices/procedures were…

The National Science Foundation's (NSF) role as a leader and steward of the Nation's science and engineering enterprise faces new tests--promoting new approaches to research, education, and workforce training that reach all Americans; responding to the increased importance of science and engineering in many aspects of daily life; modernizing the…

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA's) education vision is to promote excellence in America's education system through enhancing and expanding scientific and technological competence. In doing so, NASA strives to be recognized by the education community as the premier mission agency in support of the National Education Goals…

This guide for individuals or groups charged with designing and implementing a planning process for a college or university begins by describing certain characteristics and components of planning that the planner must understand and by recommending that new planners avoid some actions until they have analyzed the situation and determined what…

This document presents the five-year (1998-2003) plan for the University of North Carolina that was approved by the institution's Board of Governors. Following a letter of transmittal to the state's executive and legislative leaders, Part 1, an introduction, explains the plan's development and lists and locates the state's 74 public and 45 private…

This report proposes changes to the current higher education budget development process in Illinois in order to provide more information to institutions and to make the process more inclusive and open. It argues that budget development should be goal-based and accountable, responsive, incentive-based, recognize diversity of institutions, stable…

This report addresses the major performance and management challenges that have limited the effectiveness of the Department of Education in carrying out its mission. The booklet addresses corrective actions that Education has taken or initiated on these challenges--including a number of management initiatives to improve controls over the…

Over the past decade, there have been many calls for fundamental change in public education including a less hierarchical leadership structure and decentralized decision-making. While many plans provide goals for education reform, they do not provide a plan for achieving these goals. This guide offers school districts help in using strategic…

Early efforts at site-based decision making in Texas created many diverse questions about how to proceed. In some school districts, the change to a new decision-making balance centered around the district office. In others, strong campus control was established and effective self-governance plans were created. This monograph presents the…

A charter school creates an Accountability Plan to articulate to the community and the state what goals the school will use to measure its success. These "Guidelines" are intended to give schools guidance on the type of data that provide compelling evidence, the desirable structure for goals and objectives, and how to most clearly present results.…

This report documents the three-day conference held on June 15-17, 2004, in which approximately 80 stakeholders in Maine's Career and Technical Education system (CTE) gathered at the Portland Arts and Technology High School to begin a process intended to produce a strategic plan for CTE by the fall of 2004. Over the summer, the statewide CTE…

Colleges and universities spend ample time developing strategic plans. The process often involves every constituency on campus, from faculty to staff to students, who attend endless meetings and discuss in detail every goal, objective, and strategy. In the end, the plan is "approved" or "adopted" by the board of trustees. But…

The life and activities of every man in the transitional period from the second to the third millennium has been characterized by huge changes that resulted from scientific and technological revolution in which dominates a highly developed IT-Communicational Technology. This paper concludes that to attain IT-literacy and computer literacy would…

This document, presented in PowerPoint slide print-outs, discusses the Kentucky Community and Technical College System's role as strategic partner in Kentucky's economic and workforce development system. The KCTCS is composed of 25 colleges in sixteen geographic districts. The KCTCS has 3 main goals that it hopes to achieve by 2020: (1) access…