This book shows how the results of needs assessments can be transformed into action plans for an organization and discusses the procedures for facilitating that change. The book also contains a detailed glossary of needs assessment terms. The chapters are: (1) "The Need"; (2) "The Three Phases of Needs Assessment: A Closer Look"; (3) "Data-Related…

This paper compares discussions of instructional resources in academic departments with highly continuous planning with those of departments characterized by less continuous planning. Members of 44 departments in different fields and institutional types were interviewed about their department's planning contexts, roles, processes, and decisions.…

In response to growing concern about the impact on economic prosperity resulting from the low level of higher educational attainment in Maine, two bills calling for study of that issue were introduced in the 120th Maine Legislature. A commission was created to develop a plan to improve the state's level of higher educational attainment. This…

The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) has collaborated with education leaders from colleges, universities, and elementary- and secondary-education institutions, business and industry leaders, and members of the state government to develop a strategic plan for higher education for Virginia. The plan acknowledges the enrollment…

The Carnegie Foundation commissioned a collection of essays as part of the Carnegie Initiative on the Doctorate (CID). Essays and essayists represent six disciplines that are part of the CID: chemistry, education, English, history, mathematics, and neuroscience. Intended to engender conversation about the conceptual foundation of doctoral…

The State Plan for Alabama Higher Education is intended to focus public attention on important strategic issues facing Alabama higher education and the state and to articulate Alabamas needs and its vision for higher education. It is designed to commit resources necessary to provide high quality teaching, scholarship, research, and public service…

This anthology considers some ways that chaos theory might be not only a descriptive metaphor for the conditions of leadership, planning, and policy in higher education, but also a prescriptive metaphor that might be used to improve these functions and others. The essays are: (1) "Introduction: Metaphor, Chaos Theory, and This Book" (Marc…

Discusses the presentations of the conference on "Higher Education in the '80s," including the following topics: (1) An International Perspective, (2) The Structure of a Future Higher Education System, (3) Recurrent Education, (4) Patterns of Study, (5) Research, Scholarship and Contemplation, and (6) Conclusions and Reflections.

A model shows how learning strands from the core subjects in grades K-9 can be woven into a strong career plan based on effective career guidance and counseling, enabling students to eventually establish an occupational objective and distinguish among educational alternatives leading to that objective. (AG)

Criteria for institutional goals that will comprehend each operational activity, either administrative or instructional, are suggested. (Editor)

The Delphi technique is a valuable tool for collecting and organizing data to help in making decisions and to help increase the probabilities that the decisions made will be productive ones. This paper focuses on the Delphi's role in the administrator's repertoire of data collection devices. (Author)

Details the thinking that went into the decision to purchase a computer at a small technological university. (PG)

The classification of objectives which, while non-behavioral, could serve a variety of functions including the development of behavioral objectives. (Author)

Institutions of higher learning, on the whole, have failed to draw upon the full potential of the accrediting process as an instrument for internal planning and development. (Editor)