This report reviews the second-year implementation of the New York City public school system's Performance Driven Budget (PDB) initiative. The Galaxy budgeting system that is part of the PDB initiative generates a school's budget from its table of organization, and then derives district and Central budgets by aggregating all school budgets. After…

The three general categories that encompass the legitimate uses to which test data can be put (i.e., public reporting at the local, state, or regional level; identifying needs and allocating resources; and making judgments about promotion and graduation) are identified and examples are offered of policymakers' use and misuse of test results. (LC)

The University of Michigan Medical School concluded that the traditional budgeting process failed to discriminate adequately among programs. The school developed a new system for managing resources utilizing the principles of zero-base budgeting. The new budget/planning system is described. (Author/MLW)

Reports on Part A of the Older Americans' Resources and Services Multidimensional Functional Assessment Questionnaire. Content and consensual validity were ensured by construction method. Information on criterion validity was obtained for all dimensions except social. (Author)

Discusses the position that reviews directed at program improvement should be conducted by universities themselves rather than by external agencies. The experience of the University of Alberta in establishing its review procedures is described and a scheme for classifying types of review procedures is presented. (MLW)

Multicampus systems should proceed carefully in the process of academic program review, with an eye toward asking and answering questions most likely to cause institutions to confront the more fundamental questions of purpose and coherence. (Author/MSE)

Institutional administrators and research specialists must help improve and implement accountability measures if institutions are to retain academic autonomy. Current trends point to increased pressure for public accountability of higher education in the future. (MLW)

This paper argues that program evaluation research should be broadened to deal systematically with the economics of resource use at the level of the individual social service delivery agency. The argument is strengthened by the recognition that input use can be established by the same methods used to measure service delivery. (Author/MV)

Although a necessary component of good program management and accountability, monitoring data do not usually provide answers to questions about whether, how, and why a specific program works. More in-depth, systematic inquiry is needed to do this. In this article, the authors focus on the evaluation of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-prevention…

In recent years, an increasing number of districts have turned to district education foundations (DEF) for added fiscal support. Similar in many ways to university development offices, DEFs are privately operated, nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations that solicit funds from individuals and businesses and then distribute these funds to public school…

In the fall of 2007, Education Resource Strategies (ERS) was invited by Philadelphia's School Reform Commission to conduct a Strategic Professional Development Review for the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). ERS is a nonprofit organization that is nationally recognized for its extensive work in partnering with urban school districts to make…

The purpose of this report is to comment on practice in the use of existing data bases in program evaluation and school improvement and to explore directions of increased and improved use. The report's impetus is the role that existing data plays in current efforts in local school districts and the possibilities for the future. To a great extent,…

The findings from a series of case studies of nine successful demonstration programs are summarized. The programs, funded by the Appalachian Regional Commission, included child development, vocational education, technology, economic development, and housing. The primary purpose of the case studies was to discover what makes programs successful. A…

This manual covers the fundamentals of managing student activities, including program management, budget guidelines and cost-cutting methods, and ways to gain support for the student activities program. General advice is provided in the opening section on initial assessment of program options, setting priorities, and resource allocation. The…

This study is an evaluation of the functions and activities of two educational resource centers in Ghana. Issues examined and evaluated are: (1) accessibility and availability of the centers' facilities and services; (2) adequacy of the centers' materials and facilities to meet teachers' various needs; (3) relevance of the centers' activities to…