At the core, budgeting is about distributing and redistributing limited financial resources for continuous improvement. Incremental budgeting is limited in achieving the goal due to lack of connection between outcomes and budget decisions. Zero-based budgeting fills the gap, but is cumbersome to implement, especially for large urban school…

The knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for an administrator, who is an evaluation layman, to design an educational evaluation system are presented. Five aspects of an evaluation project are investigated: (1) the need for sound, clearly articulated, and current research to serve as a framework for evaluation; (2) the essential features of a…

Author gives some indications that PPBS can be a useful tool in promoting efficiency and accountability. (Author)

Discusses the implementation of Planning-Programming-Budgeting Systems in the educational system with an analysis of six objections to the innovation. (RK)

This paper offers a look into the future of educational program auditing and presents a detailed discussion of the notion of a districtwide educational audit. To date, virtually all program audit activities have occurred as a result of specially funded State or federal education programs. Once the program ends, or changes its requirements, the…

It has been argued that the answer to public and political demands for a more responsive educational system lies in the practice of accountability. The future implementation of program budgeting may offer an attractive vehicle for accountability. Currently, many California school districts use the California Educational Information System (CEIS)…

The design of an information system for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is described in this the first in a series of six reports. The system is designed to support educational accountability--the concept that schools and educators should be held responsible (accountable) for educational results. The information system represents…

The basic data requirements for making educational program decisions in an accountability-oriented setting with the school principal as the focal point of the process are detailed in this report. The emphasis is on collecting and disseminating data now available within the school system. These data fall into six categories: school descriptors,…

The functional design of the information system proposed for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is detailed in this report. The design specifies input data, processing, file formats, and report formats. The implemented system will provide information in four general areas: personnel, program/budget, educational results, and community…

This paper outlines the concept of accountability, presents performance contracting as an external response to accountability, and examines the impact of planning, programing, budgeting, and evaluation systems (PPBES) in an accountable system. The major thesis of the paper is that PPBES assists in controlling accountability by specifying…

Describes the basic concepts and suggested procedures for introducing zero base budgeting. (Author/MLF)

This book is devoted exclusively to the budgeting process in school districts, unlike the more common generic budgeting texts. As such, it allows an in-depth treatment of both conceptual and practical aspects of budgeting in a single volume. By default, school business officials have had to rely on the state education accounting manual as their…

The purpose of this seminar was to give members of the Canadian Teachers' Federation a better understanding of the educational budgetary process. The proceedings of the seminar included welcoming remarks by Russell D. Mosher followed by two addresses--"The Political Context of Budgeting" by Dr. Peter Atherton and "Resource…

Six reports concerning design of an information system to aid the Los Angeles city schools in implementing accountability and program budgeting are summarized. Extensive interviewing and system analysis led to focusing decisionmaking and accountability on the individual school principal, unlike the present centralized decisionmaking and resource…

Planning-programing-budgeting systems (PPBS) have borne few of the fruits that many claimed they would. This is partly due to the five following widely held misconceptions about PPBS: 1) that PPBS is primarily concerned with budgeting; 2) that PPBS should displace instructional goals; 3) that it is not necessary to attend to all elements of PPBS;…