The author surveys the status of and issues surrounding year-round programs in secondary schools in order to provide background for deciding which school calendar is the most effective educationally, financially, and socially. The best programs and those discontinued are listed, as are the dates of the most important developments in year-round…

The effect of political influences on the allocation of personnel, money, facilities, and equipment by elementary school principals is discussed in this paper. The use of Zald's political economy framework as a tool for understanding the principal's role in allocating resources is described by the author. He suggests that the principal occupies a…

This paper is a case study of public interest law (PIL) activity in the litigation of traditional school finance mechanisms. It is part of a much larger effort to evaluate the social and economic consequences of PIL activity and to learn whether this recent institutional innovation is a useful supplement to government in correcting…

This study used an expected utility framework with a mean-lower partial moment specification for investor utility to determine the asset allocation and the allowable contribution limits for qualified state-sponsored tuition savings plans. Given the assumptions about state policymakers' perceptions of investor utility, the study determined the…

Information concerning a theory about allocation of resources among units at colleges is presented. This information, which is primarily in tabular and graphical form, is based on a report of the special conference topic panel entitled "Clues for Leaders of Universities from Environmental Studies: Applying Theory and Research to…

Half of this paper is addressed to the national phenomena of shrinking resources and expanding needs and their effect on society. After noting that increased productivity can be a major intervention factor in mitigating their effect, the author gives ideas about how vocational education can become increasingly productive and where it might begin.…

The main purpose of this study was to examine the differences between the pupil-teacher ratio (PTR) and the actual and average class size (CS) at the elementary level in public schools in a single state (Michigan) and to clarify the ramifications for educational leaders. Another purpose of the study was to clarify the referents for the concepts of…

With tighter budget allocations, funding for different university budgets items must be managed more judiciously. Subjective criteria are often used to allocate funds to colleges within a university, with the result that allocation decisions can be based on spending differences that are not statistically significant. A statistically based method…

An approach used to determine some university faculty annual raises is described. Faculty assessment information is obtained by describing the calendar year activities of each faculty member in files dedicated to achievements, information related to instruction, and professional writings. Tabular summaries made from this information are also…

This paper describes findings from a study of school capacity, defined as the ability of schools to improve their practices and to sustain those improvements over time. Two schools in the San Francisco Bay Area (California) that have sustained success with distinct, though opposite, pedagogical approaches were examined to determine what makes a…

A general model is derived for the purpose of efficiently allocating integral numbers of units in multi-level designs given prespecified power levels. The derivation of the model is based on a constrained optimization problem that maximizes a general form of a ratio of expected mean squares subject to a budget constraint. This model provides more…

Financial planning and resource allocation for chemistry--which has costs not shared by most other disciplines--in Victoria (Australia) colleges are discussed in light of enrollment trends and these colleges' contribution to the pool of chemistry graduates. Materials and equipment costs and class size are considered. (MSE)

Discusses a research project on the allocation of teachers' resources in state secondary schools. Concludes with a summary of the major reasons why the development of a reliable and accurate measure that describes variations in "work area" emphasis within and between state educational institutions would be of value. (Author/IRT)

The Education Reform Act 1988 obliges the Local Education Authorities (LEAs) to delegate budgets to the colleges within their control by means of a formula, but does not say what should happen within colleges once the delegated budget has been received. This paper reports some of the outcomes of an action learning and training program, carried out…

The relationship between revenue dispersion and several indicators of financial condition in four-year colleges and universities was studied. Revenue dispersion is a measure of the diversity of institutional income sources. It was hypothesized that revenue dispersion would be positively related to financial condition, since variants on…