Since 1980 universities have been able to commercialize inventions that their faculty researchers create as per the 1980 Bayh-Dole Act (P.L. 96-517). Research universities can now own and license these inventions to small and well established companies. Since 1980, research universities have used tech commercialization to support their regional…

Most educational software lacks either sophisticated computer assisted instruction (CAI) facilities or modern hypermedia functionality. Combining these two aspects not only increases interactivity between computer and learning persons by means of new functions such as moving dragbuttons across the screen and giving multimedia feedback, but also…

Procedures for generating evaluation questions in the Discrepancy Evaluation Model (DEM) are problematic as they are described in the literature. These procedures would lead to unmanageably or ineffectively long lists of questions. Any process of narrowing down the list must be drawn from other sources. One such source, developed for a specific…

Educators have historically tried to limit the openness of the educational system by determining what factors from the society as a whole are allowed to influence decision-making. Other system components have been held to be more properly designed by professionals apart from societal impact. Change through time in the educational system occurs so…

Previous work assessing the effectiveness of computers in education has gone no further than acknowledging a network of interconnected variables (comprising a system) which contribute to computer impact and describing its component parts. An impact systems model developed by Glasman and Bibiaminov (1981) has been adapted to facilitate measurement…

The Planning, Monitoring, and Implementation Model (PMI) was developed to provide a model for systematic evaluation of educational programs to determine their effectiveness in achieving goals and objectives. This paper demonstrates the applicability of the PMI model at the project level. Fresh Start Minischool at Ballou High School (District of…

The rationale for the Planning, Monitoring, and Implementation Model (PMI) is the subject of this paper. The Superintendent of the District of Columbia Public Schools requested a model for systematic evaluation of educational programs to determine their effectiveness. The school system's emphasis on objective-referenced instruction and testing,…

All of the papers presented as part of a symposium concerned the application of the Planning, Monitoring, and Implementation Model (PMI) to the evaluation of the District of Columbia Public Schools' programs supported by the Elementary Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title IV-C. PMI was developed to provide a model for systematic evaluation of…

Studies done at five Canadian universities designed to test an analytic technique that enables the researcher to develop a utility function for each faculty in an institution are reported. A tool for the identification of two power indices--influence in budgetary allocation and academic policymaking--is provided. (MLW)

Each of the divisions of the Office of Educational Accountability in the District of Columbia Public Schools was required to submit an evaluation design that would be used to measure division accomplishments at the end of the school year. Since the Division of Research and Evaluation had already completed the development of the Planning,…

This paper presents a comprehensive framework for the evaluation of online bibliographic retrieval services and provides an example of its use with the Educational Information System for Ontario (EISO). A systems approach, incorporating traditional categories of input, output, process, and feedback, is used to develop the model; in its…

The design of the Planning, Monitoring, and Implementation Model (PMI) and the aspects of the model that make it useful in public schools are the topics of this paper. After the objectives of a program or operation have been identified, the model specifies three additional pieces of information that are needed for an evaluation: inputs, processes,…

This paper discusses the rationale behind information-based approaches to school and systemic improvement and identifies some alternatives to the quality assurance model used in New South Wales (Australia). It outlines the structures established for identifying and reporting issues and trends on a systemic basis and discusses some of the…

Support for public education wavers in a number of states due to a lack of evidence indicating that increased funding is associated with increases in output. Maintaining and increasing this support, however, is critical for rural communities as they seek to strengthen their human capital base as a strategy for economic growth and development. The…

In the last decade, a modeling technique has been developed to handle complex input/output analyses where outputs involve joint products and there are no known mathematical relationships linking the outputs or inputs. The technique uses the geometrical concept of a six-dimensional shape called a polytope to analyze the efficiency of each…