This document presents a pilot training program which developed, diffused, and evaluated the application of a selected group of research and development (R&D) techniques for planning and initiating change in the public schools. The training model resulted from suggestions of an interdisciplinary development team at the University of Kansas. The…

In illustrating how systems analysis can aid university planning, a report is presented of the early results of the application of systems analysis to problems of planning in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto. Analysis is reported of various alternative policies concerning enrollment, curriculum, involvement of teaching, hospitals,…

Resource acquisition is a general process active in all social organizations. The relative success of organizational resource mobilization determines whose goals and values will be met. Several factors impinge on resource mobilization, including suborganizational levels, technological sophistication, professionalization, and unionization.…

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…

PPBS is a process by which priorities among the kinds of services a college may provide are weighed, objectives are stated in operational terms, alternative means to accomplish the given objectives are analyzed, and a choice among competing means is made according to criteria for efficient utilization of resources. This manual attempts to…

Systems theory and its application to educational administration are discussed in this paper. An extensive literature review concludes that systems analyses are based on the concept of interdependence and on the assumption that the whole may be greater than the sum of its parts. Applications to educational administration include model building,…

The least understood of complex systems is that which produces educated people. Superficially, many key elements of a manufacturing organization are part of the system: a product, product tolerance limits, methods for assessing product deviation, and a feed-back system for making compensatory adjustments. In layman's terms these elements are:…

This pamphlet presents a general description of the systems approach as applied to education, and gives verbal and mathematical model examples of its application in educational administration. The basic aims of the systems approach are to (1) identify major objectives of a program plan, (2) define programs that can effect the planned goals, (3)…

This study examines the relationship between organizational structure and elements of three social system processes: (1) input and output boundary exchanges, (2) system production, and (3) use of facilities. The specific system processes are enrollment planning and student placement, curriculum continuity, and use of physical and social…

This report explores some techniques that could assist educational managers in their attempts to arrive at more optimal input and output mixes. Following a review of the literature on input-output analyses in education and a description of the Pennsylvania Educational Quality Assessment Program (the basis of the present study), an empirical…

The professional development process can be organized as a continuous, multifaceted, proactive, and integrated system that is futures-oriented and focused on adaptation as an essential organizational function. A systems model employing a university professional school as an example is presented. It focuses on professional schools because they lend…

Program budgeting is described as a means of enabling higher education to respond effectively to three major accountability concerns. They are (1) the long-term financial implications of a particular programmatic or policy decision, (2) determination of what is being paid for, and (3) understanding that the price being paid for a program is…

The system approach to planning and managing educational change features the use of an adaptive framework and a strategy for planned system change. The approach focuses management attention upon (1) relevant future states of expectation or goals, (2) present and future state variables and contexts, (3) human organization factors, and (4)…

In man-computer communication, the computer responds only as it is programed to respond. A human's response is more complicated because it depends on the "pre-programed" ways that humans process information. The three functions a man performs on received information are conservation (in which messages are retained whole), reduction (in which…

The document analyzes the Training and Technology (TAT) Industrial Skill and Technical Training (ISTT) program and describes the basic relationships between various training components and their linkages to certain aspects of program structure and organization. The TAT ISTT program operations are presented within the conceptual framework of an…