Recently, there has been growing interest in adapting Return-on-Investment thinking to education--sometimes called educational productivity, or academic-ROI. Education leaders do not seek a monetary return on their spending, rather greater student learning, or other outcomes like student citizenship, higher graduation rates, or increased lifetime…

This dissertation analyzes a decision system that was used in the early 1900s in the Federated Malay States (FMS) by Malcolm Watson in order to make anti-malaria program recommendations to decision makers in a wide range of ecological settings. Watson's recommendations to decision makers throughout the FMS led to a dramatic suppression of malaria…

Program budgeting is a system that focuses on outcomes rather than on inputs, relates resources to outcomes, includes more than one time interval in the budget document, and states outcomes in measurable terms. If the assumptions underlying program budgeting are accepted, the system can be an effective tool for identifying new ways to do jobs…

Describes a national building cost data file for large-scale pooling and sharing of critical cost information. Contains a framework for organizing cost data according to a system of major building elements. (Author/MLF)

A guide to environmental scanning looks at its rationale and relationship to strategic planning, and outlines three administrative approaches: establishment of a committee, sponsoring a scanning conference or event, and assigning the task to the institutional research or planning office. (MSE)

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…

Three major presentations made at an October 1968 conference at Hartland, Michigan, for public school administrators and university professors are "The Systems Movement and Educational Administration," by Glenn L. Immegart; "Cost-Utility Analysis and Educational Decision-Making," by Austin D. Swanson; and "Educational…

Cost-effectiveness represents an attempt to apply one methodology to decision-making in education. Three recent trends in the behavioral and social sciences are apparent: Rationalization in the decision process, institutionalization of research in education, and the beginning of a general theory of organizational behavior. The problem posed is how…

This report, a clear statement of how one district developed a planning system, offers both a theoretical and a practical approach to providing the superintendent, his staff, and the board of education with a comprehensive planning system instrument for making policy decisions and allocating resources. Also provided are guidelines for involving…

There are basically four dimensions to a systems analysis that we find in current educational research: (1) Collecting information, (2) analyzing input-output relationships, (3) deriving models built upon these relationships to evaluate alternatives and to derive feasible solutions, and (4) attempting to derive the best solution consistent with…

A review of cost-effectiveness analysis techniques was conducted in order to facilitate the selection of the most appropriate tool to aid any given instructional development effort. A survey was made of the cost-effectiveness techniques in current use, the differences among these techniques were examined in an analytical framework, and criteria…

Educators must recognize the inadequacies of their planning, programing, evaluation, and budgeting systems. When these are redeveloped, PPBS will produce the cost/effectiveness data they are really capable of. (WM)

Selection of and search for appropriate instructional materials should begin while writing instructional objectives during the curriculum planning process. A five-phase system to help the teacher make selection decisions, in consultation with the school media specialist, is presented. (MF)

In adult education, program planning and administrative management are important areas within which economic analysis may contribute to effective and efficient decision making. The adult education administrator is faced with a dual economic task: (1) to prove beforehand that his programs will pay for the operating budget he is demanding; and (2)…