This study examines ways in which evaluators' principles influence decisions about evaluation resources. Evaluators must seek-out and allocate (often scarce) resources (e.g., money, time, data, people, places) in a way that allows them to conduct the best possible evaluation given clients' and evaluation participants' constraints. Working within…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between resource allocation practices in specific categorical functions and student performance in reading and math. This study utilized quantitative research methods to study the effects of spending and performance over four years of analysis. Quantitative data was acquired utilizing…

The study of capital in all of its forms has provided key insights into the system of education: its structure, its inequities, its values and its contributions. While the research is a key component to understanding educational opportunity and inequity, it does not advance from research to application. There is a general consensus that the…

Higher education institutions in the United States are entering a new era in budgeting. Therefore, institutions are actively engaging in dialogues about the budgeting tools that will most effectively assist them in achieving institutional goals and objectives within their strategic plans and being accountable for the use of scarce resources, as…

Academic achievement in higher education is an important current policy issue because institutions are under public pressure to justify state subsidies and rising tuitions with demonstrable gains in student learning. This article uses data from three flagship public universities to examine the effects of financial aid on first-through fourth-year…

Cooperatives are systems organized along key principles to balance the distribution of wealth across organizational members. The cooperative movement has an extensive history and has contributed to the design and operation of a large variety of endeavors that seek to maximize returns to a maximum number of stakeholders. While cooperatives are…

In May 2009, three senior financial leaders in higher education--Laurie G. Antolovic, Albert G. Horvath, and Margaret F. Plympton--participated in a panel session, moderated by Philip J. Goldstein, at the EDUCAUSE Enterprise Information and Technology Conference. The three also shared their thoughts in an audio interview conducted by Gerry Bayne,…

Colleges are facing a growing deferred-maintenance problem, which at many public institutions adds up to repair bills in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Sometimes state legislatures have not supported those colleges at levels needed to maintain campus infrastructure. But at the same time, colleges continue to expand their campuses even as…

When people talk about the future of public universities, they are usually talking about the flagship state universities. Flagship state universities have greatly increased expenditures in the past decade. The goal of the flagship institutions has been to compete with the best private universities, based on the assumptions that state funds will be…

The nearly $54-billion that Congress is directing to the states for education as part of the stimulus bill President Obama signed last week may stave off the worst budget cuts proposed for public colleges. But the money is unlikely to save institutions from the state budget ax entirely. And some states slated to get the most aid from that pot of…

This study examines how five diverse California elementary schools--two underperforming and three high achieving, with statistically significant subgroups of English Learner, socioeconomically disadvantaged, and minority students--have allocated resources to improve student achievement. The applied research contributes new information to the…

The paper discusses the idea and purpose of Child-Friendly Schools (CFSs) initiated by the UNICEF. It analyses the implications of CFSs in terms of improving children's health and nutrition, promoting gender equality, protecting children's rights, re-defining education quality and creating positive psycho-emotional environment at schools.…

In a time of scarce resources, many colleges and universities are looking for ways to stretch their existing resources for student success. At the same time, most institutions have a significant number of student workers. This paper presents the latest research that describes the vital role of on-campus employment in student retention. This report…

Recognizing the interrelated nature of the standards movement, school finance litigation, and student outcomes, this study investigates the relationship of school funding and the specific outcome measure of cohort graduation rates in 16 Southern states that comprise the Southern Region Education Board (SREB). Research indicates that Southern…

In this study, the researchers examined the extent to which Texas public school districts' compliance with the 65% instructional expenditures ratio was related to student academic success on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge & Skills tests. Separated into three groups (i.e., 65% instructional expenditures and higher, 60 to 65% instructional…