Instead of shielding the public from the effects of budget cuts by making small across-the-board cuts on many programs, school administrators should slash whole programs. This will maintain the system's overall educational effectiveness while making clear the consequences of the public's political actions. (Author/RW)

The Memphis Restructuring Initiative (MRI) was an attempt at comprehensive school reform in Tennessee that ended with a whimper. Its downfall seems to involve some sort of "schismogenesis" or "inversion," in which many teachers violently reacted against being overworked and overwhelmed, culminating in the easy discarding of 8…

Certain systems analysis techniques can be applied to examinations of program failure in continuing education to locate weaknesses in planning and implementing stages. Questions to guide an analysis and various procedures are recommended. Twelve issues that contribute to failures or discontinuations are identified. (Author/MLW)

How institutional research can improve the quality of institutional performance of colleges and universities in the face of funding constraints is discussed. An example of the use of instructional research to assist in documenting institutional quality in Australia is noted. Institutional research uses data collection, analysis, and interpretation…