In this article, we discuss the development of online courses in higher education in terms of the in- structional quality and economic costs. In our conceptual analysis, we point out problems in developing online courses with sufficient quality due to limited funds being made available for online course development. Moreover, economic costs exist…

The 1997 Nebraska Legislature enacted Bill 806 to promote school consolidation, which legislators believed would lead schools to become more cost-efficient and provide a significantly larger curriculum. This legislative action begged the question: Has the move to consolidate schools made Nebraska schools more efficient while providing greater…

The purpose of this study was to examine what types of initiatives exist to increase access to and affordability of postsecondary education, especially in community college programs that lead to occupational advancement. We reviewed community college agency and state legislative Web sites to discover what initiatives or policies are currently…

A report from the School Choice Demonstration Project examines issues concerning the funding formula used for the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP). It finds that the program generates a net saving to taxpayers in Wisconsin but imposes a significant fiscal burden on taxpayers in Milwaukee. However, these findings depend significantly on how…

Background: Research into recruitment, retention and return of speech and language therapists in the National Health Service (NHS) is relatively limited, particularly in respect of understanding the factors that drive employment choice decisions. Aims: To identify what factors influence speech and language therapists working in the NHS to stay,…

This Buckeye Institute policy brief sets out to document problems and inequities in charter school finance in Ohio, but it falls short in providing a comprehensive presentation of evidence. It ignores relevant research literature and extensive findings from the official state evaluation. It incorrectly assumes that charter schools serve the same…

Designed to assist with the management of e-resources, electronic resource management (ERM) systems are time- and fund-consuming to purchase and maintain. Questions of system compatibility, data population, and workflow design/redesign can be difficult to answer; sometimes those answers are not what we'd prefer to hear. The two primary functions…

The present paper tackles the issue of the higher education funding system in Slovenia. Its main attribute is that institutions are classified into study groups according to their fields of education, and funds granted by the state are based on their weights or study group factors (SGF). Analysis conducted using data envelopment analysis tested…

In an effort to explore the impact of performance incentives in education, the National Center on Performance Incentives (NCPI) partnered with the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) to conduct the Project on Incentives in Teaching, or POINT. The study examines the effects on student outcomes of paying eligible teachers bonuses of up to…

During the 2008-2009 academic year, there were nearly 1.8 million students enrolled at more than 2,800 for-profit institutions of higher learning in the United States. Students in for-profit colleges and universities accounted for over 9% of all students enrolled in postsecondary education. The numbers have continued to grow, and today (2010) the…

The recent court decision in Ohio requires that school districts spend a sufficient amount to insure that students are able to meet outcome objectives. Determination of adequate spending is complicated by the influence that fixed socioeconomic factors have on outcome provision; adequate spending will vary depending on the harshness of the…

The Open University has been undertaking an extended initiative to improve student retention through enhanced support for at-risk students. This initiative has evolved through a series of stages from ad hoc small scale local interventions relying largely on tutors and student self-referral, to an institution-wide pro-active system implemented by…

PRINCE2, which stands for Projects in Controlled Environments, is a project management method covering the organisation, management, and control of projects and is widely used in both government and commercial IT and building projects in the UK. This paper describes the application of PRINCE2 to the management of large clinical trials…

This study describes a benefit-cost analysis of a comprehensive mentoring program for beginning teachers conducted in a medium-sized California school district. Using actual program cost information and data on student achievement, teacher retention, and mentor evaluations, the authors performed a benefit-cost analysis to determine whether…

Anyone who spends time on a university campus will notice the number of students working collaboratively on projects. These students often encounter problems finding a place with both space and equipment to support their work. Collaboration usually is also a bit noisier than other coursework. Although the library is often a main meeting place…