Some superintendents successfully exploit competitive intentions of the charter-school movement to improve district schools. A 1997 study of randomly selected districts found that half had experienced little financial effects from charters. Districts often lose certain ethnic groups and disgruntled parents. Ripple effects and policy…

A new national survey, developed by professionals in higher education assessment, seeks to measure the extent to which colleges use "good practices" that encourage learning. Creators of the National Survey of Student Engagement will study undergraduates at 750 colleges over three years to establish benchmarks for different institution…

A voucher system enabling parents to choose freely the schools their children attend is the most feasible way to improve education. Vouchers will encourage privatization. That will unleash the drive, imagination, and energy of competitive free enterprise to revolutionize the education process. Government schools will be forced to improve to retain…

To cultivate an online market share, companies must design marketing strategies specifically for the Internet. This article examines the nature of business on the Internet, highlighting demographics, user control, accessibility, communication, authenticity, competition, and security and proposes a marketing strategy, including targeting and…

Examines the future of interactive TV where consumers navigate the Internet on their TVs with WebTV set-top boxes. Focuses on competition between cable companies and computer and consumer electronics companies. Highlights nine companies and partnerships developing interactive hardware and services. (PEN)

Examines whether private school competition affects public school quality, using consistently defined graduation rates for unified school districts in 18 states. Ordinary least-squares analysis can generate misleading inferences. Two-stage least-squares estimates show that competition from private schools has a positive, statistically significant…

A study of Internet usage by large, small, and midsized businesses suggests that midsized businesses may be at a competitive disadvantage. Found that small businesses were more likely than midsized or large firms to have home pages and to reveal computer/technology programs as potential Internet services needed to improve current operations. (PEN)

A study investigated how 11 successful high school female students described the impact of competition on their academic and social lives. Competition was viewed by participants as a negative behavior. When faced with situations of competition, students preferred to concentrate on prosocial behaviors that promoted interpersonal relationships.…

Schools and other government facilities want to see whether privatization of maintenance can provide services as efficiently and at less cost than inhouse workers. Privatization proponents say that everyone will benefit the most if the bidding process involves competition. Offers examples from the Memphis City Schools and the Union Public Schools…

Discusses a survey comparing parents' views of four British schools, two grant maintained (GM) and two local education authority (LEA) maintained. LEA school supporters believe these schools assess students more regularly and feature sound homework and uniform policies. GM school advocates believe their children will enjoy a pupil-centered…

The major transformation of the economy is redefining work. A critical dimension of preparing workers is alignment of the educational process and the work process. Beyond content or basic skills, workers need interactive or context skills to cope with the chaotic environment of work. (SK)

Describes the Questia subscription-based online academic digital books library. Highlights include weaknesses of the collection; what college students want from a library; importance of marketing; competition for traditional academic libraries that may help improve library services; and the ability of Questia to overcome barriers and…

Describes how many colleges are constructing new business school facilities to lure students and financial support. (EV)

Describes two global paradigms that have dominated debates about education in Ontario and all of Canada over the last 30 years: global economic competitiveness and global interdependence. Makes the case that to prepare students for the new century, excellence in education should be defined as meeting the requirements of both paradigms. (SLD)

Recommendations for investing college/university endowment funds focus on identifying structural and skill-based competitive advantages. These include the long institutional time horizon and the ability to endure short-term volatility. Implications for endowment management are applied to selecting an endowment manager and asset allocation. (DB)