This thesis studies four independent resource allocation problems with different assumptions on information available to the central planner, and strategic considerations of the agents present in the system. We start off with an online, non-strategic agents setting in Chapter 1, where we study the dynamic pricing and learning problem under the…

Public Act 100-0465 or the Evidence-Based Funding for Student Success Act was signed by Illinois Governor, Bruce Rauner, on August 31, 2017. According to the Illinois State Board of Education's Evidence-Based Funding webpage, "This law enacts evidence-based funding (EBF) and comprehensively changes the way that school districts receive the…

Children construct meaning from their economic experiences in the form of naive theories and use these theories to explain the relationships between their actions and the outcomes. Inevitably, due to their lack of economic literacy, these theories will be incomplete. Through curriculum design that acknowledges and addresses these naive theories,…

In many control systems changes in the dynamics occur unexpectedly or are applied by a controller as needed. The time at which a controller implements changes is not necessarily known a priori. For example, many manufacturing systems and flight operations have complicated control systems, and changes in the control systems may be automatically…

Providing support for institutional planning is central to the function of institutional research. Necessary for the planning process are accurate enrollment projections. The purpose of the present study was to develop a short-term enrollment model simple enough to be understood by those who rely on it, yet sufficiently complex to serve varying…

This multi-site case study is really the story of three same-state community colleges (Bridge and Buffer Community College, Grants and Reserves Community College, and Crystal Ball Community College) two years after they suffered a potentially catastrophic 50% reduction in state allocations. This study examined their responses to those reductions…

This study compared the allocation of human resources of a K-12 unified school district in Southern California to the Evidence-Based model (Odden & Picus, 2008). Using document analysis and interviews of key administrators of the district, data was input into a spreadsheet to identify gaps between current practice and the Evidence-Based model.…

This study applied the Evidence-Based Model (Odden & Picus, 2008) as a framework for determining how district leadership could potentially reallocate human resources to maximize the opportunity for student achievement, relying heavily on the ten strategies for doubling student performance (Odden, 2009; Odden & Archibald, 2009) and the…

The purpose of this study was to examine the dispersion of human capital resources within one school district in southern California and compare the use of personnel at each school to the desired allocation informed by the district's strategies and staffing formula. The district's resource distribution was also compared to that of the Evidence…

This study applies the Gap Analysis Framework to understand the gaps that exist in human resource allocation of one Southern California school district. Once identified, gaps are closed with the reallocation of human resources, according to the Evidenced Based Model, requiring the re-purposing of core classroom teachers, specialists, special…

In Minnesota's workers' compensation system, injured employees at risk for sustaining permanent disability may be eligible for receipt of vocational rehabilitation (VR) services if they are determined to be capable of benefitting from such services. VR services can be a valuable resource to injured employees who need assistance minimizing their…

The state of Georgia has a constitutional obligation to provide an adequate and free public education, financed by taxation, for the citizens of the state. Increased accountability measures, continuing projected budget shortfalls, and public resistance to raising property taxes are current challenges for public schools. This study attempted to…

The purpose of the study was to develop a better understanding of the allocation of resources used to improve student learning outcomes in three middle schools within a Charter Management Organization (CMO). The three middle schools that participated in the study have similar demographics and serve students in low socio-economic areas of Los…

This study used a purposeful sample of five public non-charter elementary schools in Hawai`i. The schools, located on two different islands, displayed evidence of improving academic performance and consistently outperformed the state average growth in scores on the Hawai`i State Assessment (HSA). These schools had mid to high percentages of…

There are a variety of challenges facing colleges and universities today. With shrinking public funding, many colleges and universities must rethink their operations to ensure that they are operating efficiently. Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have an even more daunting task in a downturned economy because they are often…