This report is a retrospective account of a single research project conducted between 1973 and 1976 which involved a field study of the administrative feasibility of vouchers for skill training in the Work Incentive Program (WIN) in Portland, Oregon. (The program was designed to change relationships among clients, WIN staff, and training vendors,…

Two kinds of efforts at instructional improvement in higher education, student evaluation of teachers and faculty development programs on campuses, fall short of reaching their theoretical goals. Student evaluations are neither reliable nor valid measures of a teacher's instructional effectiveness. Some of the items included in such questionnaires…

The attitudes of faculty members of the College of Arts and Sciences at Northeastern Illinois University (UNI) were surveyed. The 85 respondents excluded faculty in administrative positions. A significant difference was found in faculty plans for retirement: 47 percent wished to live in the city; 24 percent in the suburbs, and 29 percent in the…

The use of certain variables in predicting the probability of persistence to graduation for students majoring in business or nonbusiness was examined at Western State College of Colorado. The study sample consisted of 131 students from the 1977-78 graduating class, of whom 52 were nonbusiness majors and 79 were business majors. Predictions of…

While program evaluations at most community colleges provide decision-makers with tactical data relating to past or current budget and enrollment statistics, there is an increased need to evaluate programs on the basis of long-term strategic information relating to projected market forces such as the future economic health of the community or…

Although the primary purpose of this report is to present prototypical procedures for conducting two-year college vocational follow-up studies, it also describes the implementation and results of using these procedures in the evaluation of the electronics, computer science, and tool and manufacturing programs at Los Angeles Pierce College. After…

Key ingredients of long-range planning described in the literature during the last 10 years, the role of an office of institutional research, and a coordinated long-range planning process as it might occur in a public four-year college or university are described. A successful long-range planning process is characterized by centralized…

The development of an operational model that would enable a college institutional research unit to improve administrative decision-making by expanding its data base to include new activities not widely recognized throughout the institution is considered. Attention is directed to institutional research as a function within an institution,…

Steps in a class action suit charging prejudicial treatment of a minority group by a college or university are summarized, and attention is directed to how the plaintiffs can use the institution's own data to establish a prima facie case for disparate treatment. The key legal issues are indicated, and typical data and statistical exhibits that an…

An examination is provided of University of Mid-America/State University of Nebraska (UMA/SUN) multimedia adult learners, based on market surveys in 1973 and 1974. One of the major responsibilities of SUN was to complete the planning of a two-year postsecondary open learning curriculum to be offered, including enumeration of courses in order of…

Planning activities at higher education institutions should be comprehensive, program based, and long-range. The daily process of planning and the necessity of integrating planning and resource allocation into a single system are emphasized in this handbook, which deals only with centralized planning activities. The focus is on program merit, not…

By showing how the addition of three universities to the State University System of Florida affected enrollment projections for the six older universities, a tool was developed that may be of use for enrollment projections in other settings, when the system changes. County population and K-12 school enrollment project reasonably well the…

The need to focus upon the organizational factors and consequences of a technological innovation is discussed and the outcome of the pilot implementation of the Academic Unit Planning Manual (AUPM) are reported. The primary intent of the AUPM, a tool developed at the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS), is to assist…

Reported are the impacts of a series of workshops for instructional improvement conducted by the Faculty Development Organization of Wittenberg University, a private, undergraduate institution of 2300 students. The impacts delineated are the results of an evaluation of these workshops. The impacts examined were extracted from the expected outcomes…

Rates of return to state investments for two of Maine's post-secondary vocational technical institutes are presented. Southern Maine Vocational Technical Institute showed a rate of return to the state economy of 12 percent; Northern Maine Vocational Technical Institute, 2 percent. The usefulness of rate of return analysis as a planning tool or as…