Major literature is reviewed in the course of describing and assessing the role of operations research (OR) in educational administration. Increased use of OR approaches in education and a compounding of the present disagreement about the application and potential of OR are forecast. (MJL)

Reviews of relevant research on the application of operations research and statistics that appeared prior to 1980 are compared with those appearing in the early 1980s. In summary, both explicit and implicit users of mathematics in educational administration see it as a tool that essentially brings order and generalizability to administrative data.…

This paper discusses goal programming, a computer-based operations research technique that is basically a modification and extension of linear programming. The authors first discuss the similarities and differences between goal programming and linear programming, then describe the limitations of goal programming and its possible applications for…

Describes the current state of knowledge about human decision-making and problem-solving processes, explaining recent developments and their implications for management and management training. Rational goal-setting is the key to effective decision making and accomplishment. Bounded rationality is a realistic orientation, because the world is too…

The demand for administrators and specialists trained in quantitative concepts and skills has increased across the last decade mainly as a result of the accountability movement. Quantitative methods can greatly assist the school administrator in certain decisionmaking processes, although it is essential that he be able to distinguish between those…

This text provides educational administrators with a working knowledge of the problem-solving techniques of PERT (planning, evaluation, and review technique), Linear Programming, Queueing Theory, and Simulation. The text includes an introduction to decision-making and operations research, four chapters consisting of indepth explanations of each…

The methods of operations research (OR) can make many contributions to the solution of the complex problems which beset urban education. OR techniques such as PERT are useful aids to planning school construction, budgets, and research projects. System planning models can be used to represent urban educational systems and to predict the effects of…