The Associates Program of the Institute for Educational Leadership is a network of educational policy-makers in over 30 states. Each state's Associate conducts several seminars each year for the benefit of the state's key policy-makers. In 1977 these Associates (then numbering 23) and the participants in their seminars responded to questionnaires…

This report reviews several approaches to organizational analysis and discusses problems in implementing an accountability system. Chapter 1 surveys socio-technical and technical-behavioral systems. Chapter 2 discusses the importance of psychoanalysis and organization analysis. Chapter 3 presents problems in implementing an accountability system…

The views of seven urban Texas school districts with regard to educational improvement are represented in this paper. The importance of local control and a variety of program alternatives is explained. The need for tax relief in order to maintain legislatively mandated programs is discussed. Findings of two research studies with regard to…

Issues concerning review processes used to select research to be performed in universities and sunported by the federal government are discussed. Recommendations regarding review processes, with special emphasis on the peer review system, are offered. It is proposed that review processes serve government and researchers' purposes of assuring that…

The Center for the Study of Evaluation's project, Evaluation and School Districts, used questionnaires to survey the heads of evaluation offices in metropolitan public school systems. This paper presents the preliminary findings of the survey. Most school systems have established a centralized program evaluation unit organized around three…

In September 1977, a questionnaire was distributed to the members of the National Council of State Directors of Community and Junior Colleges to determine how and to what extent the various states fund their two-year colleges and how the colleges must account for fund utilization to their funding source. Reponses were received from 29 states:…

In a 1979 survey, the majority of the 73% responding superintendents and 38% responding school board chairmen in 269 randomly chosen small school districts across the nation indicated that program evaluation activity occurred in their districts and that evaluation information was generally desired by and available to the school board.…

As more emphasis is placed upon institutional research that provides information relating to long-term strategic planning, as well as to short-term operational considerations, program evaluation techniques that merely analyze past or current budget and enrollment statistics will become increasingly inadequate. Such techniques are based on data…

Accountability in education in Australia is considered, including some of the causes for the present concern for accountability of tertiary institutions and strategies that might improve the situation. Different views on the role of educational institutions, ambiguities associated with the notion of public accountability, and current difficulties…

A guide to cost studies in higher education is presented, with emphasis directed to the response of a four-year public institution to an externally mandated cost study. Cost studies are usually requested to guide budget allocations, either from an internal campus need or from outside pressures. Although much effort has been expended by various…

This paper looks at the state of education and the society in 1980 and compares major changes occurring in the last 15 years with predictions made in a 1967 publication called "Designing Education for the Future No. 2: Implications for Education of Prospective Changes in Society." The author identifies on-target predictions and major changes that…

Proceedings of the 1980 conference of the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education, which focused on campus bargaining the eighties, are presented. Contents are as follows: "The Economic Environment in the Eighties: the Necessity for Joint Action," by Gerie Bledsoe; "The Legal Environment: The…

Most state legislatures have either passed or taken under consideration for passage some minimum competency testing program. However, it is not clear that these legislative efforts will result in implementation programs that fulfill legislative intent. Throughout the United States legal challenges from students adversely affected by testing…

Six essays are collected on the subject of the quality of institutions and their instruction. In "When Does a College Deserve to be called 'High Quality'," by Alexander W. Astin, various perspectives of quality are outlined and commented upon: the mystical view, reputational view, resources view, outcomes view, and value-added view. Problems with…

The differentiation between efficiency and effectiveness in evaluating the performance of institutions of higher learning is examined and the role of management information systems in the decision-making processes of such institutions is explored. While efficiency is primarily concerned with cost minimization concepts, effectiveness is concerned…