A principal of three Ontario "twinned" schools (sharing principal and services) discusses the arrangement's advantages: greater sharing of both human and technical resources and increased opportunities for broader budget negotiations between schools. The disadvantages of twinning relate to the additional stress placed on the principal…

Estimates of the costs of including hands-on measures of science skills in a large-scale assessment program were derived from a field trial involving more than 2,000 fifth and sixth graders. Results suggest that complexity makes hands-on assessments more than three times as expensive as open-ended writing assessments. (SLD)

Using existing and new facilities more efficiently could accommodate increased student enrollment while producing significant savings in capital and operating costs. Ontario's Ministry of Education has identified 10 ways to increase facilities utilization, including innovative scheduling, year- round schooling, varied attendance plans, offsite…

Investigates resourcing issues for schools through headteachers' perceptions of the funding issues. Delegation of financial decision-making has made it harder to obtain impartial analyses of resource-deployment decisions. Concludes that linking resources to learning requires a shift in emphasis away from apportionment and toward the language of…

Discusses recent curricular and instructional reforms, collectively called basic skills restructuring, that have developed in urban schools. Discusses these reforms as a response to various crisis tendencies in the operation of schools by dominant power groups. Discusses the causes and effects of top-down curricular reform initiatives. (JS)

Compares the effects of peer tutoring and computer-based instruction on student achievement and motivation through a meta-analysis of research. Cost effectiveness is also investigated via ratios which combine the effects of the intervention with estimates of implementation costs, and an appendix includes reviews of 10 cost-effectiveness research…

Describes a prototype current awareness service for college faculty and staff which is based on online bibliographic databases and tables of contents from selected periodical holdings for the selective dissemination of information. The discussion reports patterns of use, types of documents selected, delivery patterns, and the overall effectiveness…

Budgeting trends that will occupy the attention of school boards in the coming years include: (1) learning to do without; (2) streamlining the number of administrators; (3) repairing aging school infrastructures; (4) responding to changes in demographics; and (5) removing environmental hazards. (MLF)

Describes Project CHILD (Computers Helping Instruction and Learning Development), a computer-integrated learning system for elementary schools developed at Florida State University. Topics discussed include restructuring the grades and the curriculum; changing roles of teachers, students, and parents; motivation; time on task; cost-effective use…

An overview of the evaluation issues associated with contraceptive social marketing programs is provided. Methodologies covered include survey techniques, cost-effectiveness analyses, retail audits of sales data, time series analysis, nested logit analysis, and discriminant analysis. (TJH)

Describes a system that combines computer-assisted learning (CAL) with interactive video. It was designed in England for an undergraduate pathology course. Hardware, based on a BBC microcomputer, is described; the design of interactive graphics is explained; and the tutorial design, using an authoring system, is discussed. (26 references) (LRW)

A broader definition of quality in medical student residency training is offered to guide development of outcome quality measures. The definition includes the following dimensions of program quality: student characteristics; cost-effectiveness; degree to which it meets society's needs; and fair and ethical selection, assessment, and treatment of…

An evaluation of an in-home treatment program for child-abusing families in California revealed that, in comparison to a conventional group who received traditional counseling services, families receiving intensive in-home therapy experienced a reduction in stress, improved their communication skills, and were able to keep their children in the…

Presents an economic model to analyze the cost efficiency of access to journal articles via three alternatives: journal subscriptions, consortium membership, and commercial document delivery. Results show cost efficiency is based on the value of future journal use, costs of delivery and subscriptions, and the value of time to patrons. (Author/LRW)

Considers five distinct issues that must be addressed in order to integrate technology into schools and plan for it effectively: infrastructure, including the National Information Infrastructure; professional development for teachers; content and software, including cost effectiveness; equity and access; and financing. (LRW)