The drive for systemic reform in education reflects a widespread hunger in all sectors of society to make sense of the whole, as is shown in the increasing recognition of people in organizations of the interrelatedness of the organizations' parts. However, many attempts at systemic reform are hampered by the lack of a common view of what an…

Because the quality management (QM) movement can be very important in school improvement efforts, it is essential to determine how QM can fit with relatively new restructuring ideas and whether this approach is consistent with existing school structures and processes. This book presents an integrated approach to holistic quality management that…

This monograph explains the community-based systems of care approach to providing services for children and youth with emotional disorders and reviews data from 30 communities suggesting that children served in systems of care are less likely to receive services in restrictive environments or to be placed out of their homes, counties, and states.…

This book examines the influence of policy environments, system design, and leadership on the performance of state higher education systems, using case studies of seven large and diverse state higher education systems: California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan, New York, and Texas. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the evolution of state…

This document contains three papers from a symposium on human resource development (HRD) and performance outcomes. "Going to the Next Level of Growth: Employing Systems Thinking to Make Effective Interventions" (Carol Ann Zulauf, Joseph A. Ilacqua) shows how a systems view enables organizations to find the most effective point for…

This book examines the rationale, benefits, and limitations of computer-assisted career decision making (CDM). Discussed in Chapter 1 are the following: the components of CDM (options, persons, environments, processes, and outcomes); the historical development and context of CDM; and considerations in reaching decisions about work, occupations and…

Under development in a Maryland district, the Competency-Based Systems Oriented Guidance Program described here combines (1) a focus on helping all students become competent in knowledge, attitude, and skills and (2) a systems orientation addressing the entire spectrum of student life by providing a common language, methods of information…

The validity of educational tests used as critical measures of educational outcomes within a dynamic system is discussed. Validity becomes a problem if an educational system adapts itself to the characteristics of the outcome measures. The concept of systematically valid tests is introduced; these tests induce curricular and instructional changes…

An overview is provided of progress in the development of a management information system for the California community colleges. First, background is presented on the current Uniform Statewide Reporting System (USRS), and problems with the system are identified and discussed (i.e., lack of student outcome information, unintegrated data, lack of…

The present research addresses the issues of whether there exist certain cognitive skills that facilitate transfer, and whether such skills are themselves transferable across domains. Of primary concern is the instructability of such skills. The Systems Thinking and Curriculum Innovation Project (STACI) is a two-year research project testing the…

This manual describes and illustrates ED QUEST (Quick Environmental Scanning Technique), an educational planning model designed to identify emerging issues and events which portend threats and opportunities to colleges and universities, to analyze the probable impact of these variables on the organization, and to facilitate the development of…

This paper describes the computer education programs for teachers that have been implemented by the Singapore Institute for Education. After examination of computer education programs in advanced countries, it was determined that the program in Singapore should include the following features: applications-based learning across the curriculum;…

In Latin American education systems the inspectorate is an administrative level linking the central national educational administration to the local operations level. Traditionally the inspector's function has been to enforce fulfillment of pedagogical and administrative norms at the local level and to transmit pertinent information on achievement…

One of the difficulties encountered by novice problem solvers in introductory physics is in the area of problem solving. It has been shown in other studies that poor problem solvers are affected by the surface aspects of the problem in contrast with more efficient problem solvers who are capable of constructing a mental model of the physical…

The first report of an ongoing case study examining the impact of using a laboratory of microcomputers as a tool for teaching science and social science courses in a high school, this paper reports on a sociological investigation of the organizational change in the structure and functioning of the school brought about by the introduction of the…