Graves (2005) suggested that academic freedom might impede efforts to improve institutional performance and achieve the goals set for learning outcomes, cost efficiency, and preparing students for the workplace. The author's initial response to threats to academic freedom and calls for efficiency is to bristle, because he views these as threats to…

Examines the politics of school budgeting. School managers operate with primitive accounting systems that can mask financial problems for years and are trapped by state, federal, and union mandates. Reforms include allowing districts flexibility to reallocate money; demanding both instructional leadership and financial expertise from…

This paper discusses methodological criteria for environmental education. The place of environmental education in the curriculum has led to its being considered as a dimension that should cut across different disciplines, instead of offering a corpus of contents by itself. Nevertheless, experience has shown that ecology has systematically filled…

Podcasting is an automated technology that allows listeners to subscribe and listen to digitally recorded audio shows. Once one subscribes to a podcast, the audio files are automatically downloaded to a computer?s media player by podcatcher software periodically throughout the day. Podcasting has been used primarily for disseminating recorded…

This study examines the role of district central offices in recruiting and hiring teachers and principals in an urban setting. Findings indicate many district human resources offices, particularly in urban settings, often lose quality candidates to suburban districts whose HR offices are better organized and pay closer attention to managing…

This article is the fourth contribution to a research methods series dedicated to getting "good results" from survey research. The intent of this article is to elaborate the selection and design decisions one must address when considering the use of a telephone survey as an alternative to the traditional postal survey that collects respondent data…

If developing a healthy workforce is critical to reining in the skyrocketing cost of health care, then why have so many attempts at preventive health or disease management fallen short? How can employers connect with employees to engage them in changing unhealthy habits or lifestyles? Duke University has launched an innovative new approach called…

Faculty salaries and support for professors' staff, equipment, and sabbaticals are among the key cost drivers of any higher-education institution. College administrators are hesitant to confront faculty members, who, as they defend their turf, often charge that cutting costs will damage the quality of education that they provide. At a national…

Across a range of contexts, reductions in education costs and provision of subsidies can boost school participation, often dramatically. Decisions to attend school seem subject to peer effects and time-inconsistent preferences. Merit scholarships, school health programs, and information about returns to education can all cost-effectively spur…

In November of 2007, Alberta Advanced Education and Technology contracted Insightrix Research, Inc. to conduct a survey of individuals who graduated from post-secondary institutions in Alberta in the fall of 2005 or the spring of 2006 (excluding apprenticeship graduates, who are surveyed through a separate initiative). The purpose of the survey is…

Collegiate sports have opened many doors for African American males. However, serious involvement in athletics has hampered the development of the group in several areas such as academic and occupational achievement. It has been alleged that universities exploit athletes, especially African American male athletes in football and basketball. This…

The people at Inverness Research Associates spent 12 years studying Community Science Workshops (CSW) in California and in six other states. They gathered statistics on the scale, scope, and cost-efficiency of CSW services to youth. They observed youth at work in the shops--taking apart computers, repairing bikes, growing plants, and so on--and…

This study provides estimates of the private Internal Rates of Return (IRR) to tertiary education for women and men in 21 OECD countries, for the years between 1991 and 2005. IRR are computed by estimating labour market premia on cross-country comparable individual-level data. Labour market premia are then adjusted for fiscal factors and education…

A survey of the academic program review and approval activity of state-wide postsecondary coordinating and governing boards was concluded in 2006. This study is the latest in a series of survey/studies of state level program review and approval begun roughly thirty years ago by this author and colleagues. The boards selected for this survey were…

It seems a foregone conclusion that repositories for reusable learning objects (RLOs), based on common standards and supported by suitable search facilities, will foster a global economic market in the production of RLOs. Actual reuse will support producers of high-quality RLOs, and other producers will be unable to compete, i.e. competition…