Millions of students and adult learners who aspire to college are overwhelmed by the complexity of student aid. Uncertainty and confusion rob them of its significant benefits. Rather than promote access, student aid often creates a series of barriers--a gauntlet that the poorest students must run to get to college. Replacing complexity with a…

Quality-improvement principles are a sound means to respond to customer needs. However, when various quality and productivity theories and methods are applied, it is very difficult to consistently deliver quality results, especially in quasi-monopolistic, non-competitive, and regulated environments. This book focuses on quality-improvement methods…

This book, designed to assist business managers in their efforts to initiate or enhance existing programs for cost-effective disability management and achieve the spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), presents case studies of over 30 companies who are successfully complying with the (ADA). The first two chapters of the book describe…

Effective board operations are an art as well as a science. Local advisory boards or governing boards/councils refer to active, duly organized, and representative bodies that hold regular meetings and make decisions on behalf of the membership, and whose members serve without pay. Advisory boards assist those who make organizational decisions but…

At Virginia Highlands Community College (VHCC), institutional assessment activities were used to evaluate the effectiveness of the Academic and Instructional Support Services (AISS) division, a non-academic unit which includes the Library for archival/retrieval purposes, the Learning Lab for the testing and learning center, and Instructional…

This 2-year study of the effectiveness and quality of continuing professional education (CPE) in the United Kingdom identified policy implementation issues resulting from recent government policies and economic imperatives which have given rise to a "new managerialism" which is changing the organizational culture of higher education…

Examining the effectiveness of an organizational development plan, this study notes the changes in school climate in two Pennsylvania schools--a junior high and a middle school. Having selected the schools for their troubled educational environments, the authors gathered data for 2 years from interviews with students and staff, from a formal…

Designed for the community college practitioner who may be considering initiating a student tracking system, this report draws upon selected writings and other sources to examine the potential role of student tracking systems in student outcomes research. The report examines the limited scope of community college longitudinal studies conducted to…

This five-part paper examines the role of teacher unions in Australian education at the state level. An overview describes the organizational strength of Australia's teacher unions. Part 1, "Teacher Union Growth," presents a history, and part 2, "Teacher Unions and State Education," interprets issues involving unions and…

This paper seeks to provide a rationale for evaluating Technical and Further Education (TAFE) programs by using a management system approach that is based on corporate planning. The first section reviews the sources of increased demands for accountability in TAFE (societal, economic, government, and legislative sources) and examines various…

As a result of the Bureau of Indian Affairs' (BIA) laxness in improving management of programs and services for Indians, the Chairman of the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs requested the General Accounting Office (GAO) to review the accountability of federal funds and property involving contracts and grants totaling about $726…

Measurement of the organizational effectiveness of the Cooperative Extension Service (CES) could be enhanced by utilizing a multidimensional perspective in measuring outcomes of various organizational activities, particularly the Extension educational system of program development. Because multiple and conflicting environmental constraints, goals,…

A preliminary investigation into the World Bank's support of non-formal education in less-developed countries discusses the role of education in the development process, the Bank's concern with education, and its funding of non-formal education projects. The Bank's involvement in education projects is described, from support for upper division…

This report summarized progress made since 1981-82 on 88 propositions and 292 related recommendations set forth by Forming the Future, a cooperative effort between the Austin (Texas) Independent School District and the Austin community to implement a 5-year program of broad school improvements. Of the 292 recommendations, approximately 86% were…

This paper reports on several generic evaluation methods used by the evaluation office of the Curriculum Research and Development Group of the University of Hawaii (EO-CRDG). Scrivens's (generic) checklist approach was taken one step further by developing generic data collection instruments to be used with any evaluation method: (1) a formative…