The purpose of this paper is to examine what is known about the costs and cost-effectiveness of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) by presenting an appropriate cost methodology, applying it to CAI, and exploring the validity of four popular assumptions. These assumptions are: (1) that computer hardware accounts for most of the cost of delivering…

This publication includes presentations made at the Aikin-Stinnett Lecture Series and follow-up papers sponsored by the Instructional Research Laboratory at Texas A&M University. The papers in this collection focus upon the basic assumptions and conceptual bases of teacher education and the use of research in providing a foundation for…

This report discusses diverse economic issues involved in educational reforms aimed at improving economic growth. The focus is on elementary and secondary education in the southeastern United States. After a general overview of the economics of educational reform, section I discusses the issues involved in modeling and estimating the linkages…

Designed to provide instructional technologists, policy makers, and administrators with an overview of the basic principles of distance education, this booklet comprises eight chapters: (1) Introduction; (2) A Selective History; (3) Components of Distance Education Systems; (4) Organizational Options; (5) Instructional Technologists and Staffing…

This handbook is designed to help managers address safety belt usage issues through a cost-effective and direct approach--establishing an employee safety belt program. The handbook offers a hands-on guide for conducting the program and provides for implementation at all levels. The handbook contains cost information, a program overview, policy and…

Designed to assist educational decision-makers at the school and district level, this report summarizes the work of the National Task Force on Educational Technology, which was formed in the fall of 1984 to investigate the potential of appropriately integrated technology for improving learning in American schools. The task force used six primary…

Five policy papers address methods of funding vocational/special education and relative benefits versus expenditures for different employment training systems for moderately and severely handicapped persons. The first paper critiques the present vocational education funding system for handicapped students. Federal funding mechanisms, state and…

Conventional accounting systems provide no indication as to what conditions and events lead to reported outcomes, since they traditionally do not include measurements of the human organization and its relationship to events at the outcome stage. Human resources accounting is used to measure these additional types of data. This research is…

This second volume of a three-volume report of the National Commission for Manpower Policy on Public Service Employment (PSE) contains the interim report of the Brookings Institution to the Commission based on their onsite monitoring of the program. The report is divided into seven chapters. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the report, and…

The rationale for using multiple evaluation strategies in a comprehensive program evaluation is described. Examples are given of eleven strategies used in the evaluation of the Experience-Based Career Education project developed by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory through sponsorship of the National Institute of Education. Strengths…

A study reviewed the measurement problems that would confront a study team performing a national cost-benefit analysis of vocational education and presented alternative strategies to overcome these measurement problems and to provide input into assessing the feasibility of conducting a national cost-benefit study. To meet these objectives,…

This document contains the four state-of-the-art papers that serve as planning materials for construction of the planning guide for the project, Accessibility to Vocational Education Programs and Facilities for Handicapped Persons. The first paper suggests techniques by which school administrators can identify barriers to vocational education…

Evaluation of the 1974-77 INREAL (INclass REActive Language) demonstration model project, initially serving 518 children (aged 3-5 years), focused on the Colorado program's objectives of increasing language handicapped and bilingual (Spanish) children's language development significantly and preventing later language-related learning problems in…

The concept of socioeconomic impact, as it relates to two-year colleges, is examined in terms of studies that have been conducted. Measures of socioeconomic impact, such as personal income, occupational status, levels of education, are discussed and studies focusing on these measures are cited. Additional studies are pointed to which define…

This document describes and analyzes the 1976-1977 Head Start Program Information Report (PIR) data. PIR is a comprehensive data collection effort directed at the programs of all Head Start grantees of which there were approximately 1,100 in 1976-1977. The unit of analysis in this study is the grantee rather than the agencies delegated by grantees…