An introduction to general systems theory and an overview of vocabulary and concepts are presented to introduce school business officials to systems thinking and to foster its use as an analytical tool. The theory is then used to analyze a sample problem: planning changes to a district's administrative computer system. (eight references) (MLF)

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…

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.…

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…

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…

Most educational management systems currently define organizational roles in terms of the operations to be performed. A more efficient manner of organization might be one that operates in terms of objectives to be reached. One way of implementing such a problem solving structure, would be to assign a particular problem to administrative personnel…

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…

Social, philosophical, and economic pressures are confronting curriculum designers with the major problem of designing instruction which produces consistently high learning despite wide variation in student characteristics. This is essentially a cybernetic question of regulating variety in a system to produce a stable output. It is observed that…

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…

Viewing the school system as a set of subsystems with intersubsystem inputs and outputs, an organizational structure assessment instrument was designed to test the hypothesis that quantification of these inputs and outputs would make possible the determination of internal conditions of the school system which contribute to differences in school…

A systems theory approach to information requirements in education and in evaluation strategies is applied to decision making. Educational decision making itself involves long range planning, system structuring to implement goals, system allocation (cost), and system monitoring which provides the feedback. Each level requires differential…

This study attempted to determine the feasibility of adopting out budgeting, the English term for a management system using planning-programing-budgeting system (PPBS) techniques, for the Department of Education and Science, and the appropriate form of system to be used. The study team concluded that output budgeting would be practicable for all…

In order to determine the value of cost-benefit analysis to adult educators, this paper discusses the concepts involved and how they are being operationalized in adult education. The specific technique is discussed within the general framework of systems approach. A survey of current usage reveals that it has thus far been limited primarily to…

Pressures from both outside and inside the institution are making it imperative that community colleges improve their ability to document and articulate the outputs and impacts of their programs. This document addresses itself to this issue and to the problems associated with measurement of outcomes in postsecondary education. An approach taken by…