Discusses scenario planning, a method for evaluating capital investments by weighing their potential benefit to the future of the institution. (EV)

Despite being central to government education policy in many countries, there remains considerable debate about whether resources matter for pupil outcomes. In this paper we look at this question by considering an English education policy initiative--Excellence in Cities--which has been a flagship policy aimed at raising standards in inner-city…

Using statistical data on the implementing conditions of China's educational expenditure published by the state, this paper studies the Gini coefficient of the budget educational public expenditure per student in order to examine the concentration degree of the educational expenditure for China's basic education and analyze its balanced…

The practical issues of financial, human, and political costs involved in the restructuring efforts undertaken by five Washington State secondary schools, each of which is a member of the Coalition of Essential Schools, are addressed in this paper. The crux of the restructuring problem is to develop ways to provide staff members with the needed…

The attractive features of various strategies for resolving a simulated commons dilemma (a paradox in which a long-term benefit requires the individual to forego immediate gain) were determined in conditions where 40 groups of college age participants (total number = 136) were acting as a world policy making body or local advisory group when there…

Relevant macroeconomic perspectives to improve investment planning and managing of resources in colleges and universities is discussed. Five sections are as follows: (1) simple relationships between expenditures and giving (simple costs and returns); (2) conceptual refinements: predisposition and capacity (effects of predisposition, effects of…

The Federal Communications Commission's (FCC's) program for regulating domestic telecommunications common carriers is assessed in this report, and several recommendations are made to the Congress and the FCC for improving the regulatory framework provided by the Communications Act of 1934. A digest of the report and a review of the nation's…

In cases where college institutions are facing situations with too much or too little space, there must be drastic revision in educational programs to provide economical use of buildings. One solution is to redeploy campus space and to alter the timing of programs. Examples considered include year-round campus use, off-campus programs,…

As part of a symposium that examined the utility of adapting the techniques of cost-effectiveness analysis for curriculum and program planning in higher education, this paper examines the methodology and procedures of the technique. A checklist outlines some of the problems and potential and some guidelines are suggested for cost-effectiveness…

Examines some of the organizational dysfunctions that can result from an overdependence on the "rational-economic" decision-making approach. (Author)

In their study of the usage demands placed on journal collections in academic libraries, Allen Kent and coauthors have not adequately considered the long-term variability of those demands in their formulation of a cost-benefit model for the management of journal collections. Though resource-sharing and the matching of periodical acquisitions to…

The major problem facing educational administrators in the next decade will be the need to control costs within the context of reduced resources. This paper, by centering its discussion around the problem of declining enrollments, discusses the role of administrators in educational finance. Restrictions to cost control in Canadian schools are…

Marginal utility analysis is described in this paper, with zero-base budgeting (ZBB) discussed as an applied example. Some of the theoretical and practical issues surrounding such models are assessed, and the movement for more scientific and rational resource allocation is placed in a larger methodological and philosophical context. The focus of…

Mathematical model building for educational planning in this country has been heavily influenced by the USOE DYNAMOD Model, a computerized Markov-type or input-output model. However, the input-output method is structurally inadequate to reflect the true behavior of the educational system. To introduce some elements of decision making into the…