The nature and extent of systems analysis in education is discussed in terms of the following specific applications: (1) Instructional systems where the concern is with the components of the system (e.g., teachers, students, material to be taught, or audiovisual systems) and their interaction in the learning process, (2) project management systems for the planning and controlling of a wide variety of educational projects, (3) management information systems for better decision making by chief school officials, (4) planning-programming-budgeting systems for selecting among alternatives to reach program goals, and (5) operations research which attempts to identify the relevant variables making up the total system and subsystems and to secure quantitative data for each variable. Two problems involved in discussing systems analysis in education--terminology and the difficulty of securing evidence about its impact and application--are outlined. Warnings and recommendations regarding the role of systems analysis in education are presented. (HW)