This study explores five elements pertaining to sound financial management in institutions of higher education as related to Government negotiated research contracting. The research tested the feasibility of five hypotheses presented as elements to be investigated in the study. Responses to a mail questionnaire were analyzed and final audit reports were examined. The data obtained were used as evidence to support the contention that sound financial management in universities as related to research negotiated contracting is important and can be improved through these five elements: 1. Financial management aids in developing the climate in which research can best be performed. It has been shown that research is performed in almost all the institutions of higher education. However, it is believed that the institutions would greatly enhance and improve the climate if they utilize management advisory services and provides staff training for their financial management personnel. 2. Universities and Government have a common interest in assuring the conservation of public funds. This can be accomplished by the universities having the capability of furnishing the Government with timely and accurate financial reports, accounting for the stewardship of the research funds, and by maintaining the financial accounts in such a manner as to readily reflect the segregated costs applicable to each research project. It would be a great improvement to the common interest of the university and the Government if all universities had their accounting firm review and approve their indirect cost proposals. The Government should then be able to accept the proposal if certified by the university's accounting firm to be reliable enough to use for negotiating the indirect cost rate without an audit by Government auditors. 3. Government financial policies and regulations, as they pertain to universities, are provided to encourage maximum realization of research. The representatives of universities and Government have worked together and made great progress in formulating procedures and methods for improving the financial aspects of research contracting. Some of the methods and procedures which provide evidence of the mutual endeavor are; (1) the use allowance in lieu of depreciation is acceptable under Office of Management and Budget Circular A-21 and the American Council on Education; (2) the procedure for testing title of research property is clearly established by Office of Management and Budget Circular A-101which aids in administering and closing the research contract without undue delay; and (3) the policy of one Government agency performing audit of direct and indirect costs, as well as negotiating indirect cost rates for a single university (OMB Circular A-88) greatly improves the uniformity of mutually accepted cost principles by universities and Government. 4. Mutual financial responsibility of universities and Government as related to research contracts is essential. Personnel of both contractual entities are making a concerted effort to recover indirect costs of university research through an equitable method and to provide a method of advancing funds through the letter-of-credit which alleviates the need of the university to use its own funds. It is believed that more emphasis should be placed on the review or research cost budgets by the financial management of the university. 5. Audit functions of Government audit agencies regarding the auditing of research contracts at universities could be performed by the institution's external auditors. Most universities have their accounting records audited by either independent accounting firms or by state or some independent audit group. These auditors are external auditors and have a professional integrity to maintain, therefore the audit performed by them and the financial reports issued should be acceptable to any interested party provided the reports contain an unqualified auditor’s opinion. The finalization of the research contracts could be handled more expeditiously if the Government would accept the verification by external university auditors of the total costs incurred under cost-reimbursement contracts. This paper emphasizes the importance of sound financial management in educational institutions as related to Government research contracting and how it can be improved. The research has validated these essential factors.

For the first time in 15 years in the Commonwealth of Virginia, a major restructuring in the elementary and secondary education finance formula was enacted during the 1988 General Assembly and revenue for education was increased by {dollar}576 million for the upcoming biennium. The overriding purpose of these modifications was to reduce disparities between more and less affluent school systems. The problem of educational disparity is not unique to Virginia. Over the last 20 years, between 60 and 70 individual pieces of litigation have been filed, contesting the constitutionality of public school finance systems in 41 of the United States. In 1990 alone, state courts found three states' education funding formulae to be in violation of those states' constitutions, and the state of Kentucky called for the restructuring of the entire system of public education. The Coalition for Equity in Education Funding filed suit against the Commonwealth of Virginia in the circuit court for the city of Richmond on June 12, 1992. The suit, which was filed on behalf of 31 local school boards and students in those school divisions, asked the court for a judgment declaring that the current system of funding public elementary and secondary schools to be declared unconstitutional because it denies children from less affluent school divisions an educational opportunity that is equal to that of children who attend public school in wealthier divisions in the Commonwealth of Virginia.;The purpose of this study is to analyze the Virginia school finance system in order to determine: (1) whether disparities in revenue for education have been reduced between pupils in high and low fiscal capacity school divisions as a result of the 1988 changes in the financing system in education, and (2) if the relationship between a locality's fiscal capacity and its educational expenditure has changed subsequent to the 1988 Virginia General Assembly's restructuring of the school financing system.;Five research questions were investigated using a correlational methodology. Upon analyzing the data, the following are some of the conclusions drawn: (1) When range was used, the disparity increased between 1988 and 1992; (2) A high positive correlation does exist between ability-to-pay as measured by the composite index and total per pupil expenditure; and (3) A high positive correlation does exist between per pupil expenditure from local funds and total per pupil expenditure. Recommendations are made for future research.

Intercollegiate athletics are a prominent feature of American higher education. They have been characterized as the “front door” to the university due to their unique ability to draw alumni and other supporters to campus. It is often supposed that the exposure from high-profile athletics produces a number of indirect benefits including greater institutional prestige. Such exposure comes at a cost, however, as most Division I athletics programs are not financially self-sufficient and receive institutional subsidies to balance their budgets. At present, it is unclear how institutions budget for athletics subsidies or whether the recent increases in subsidies have impacted the overall financial picture of colleges and universities. Prior research has shown that athletics subsidies and student tuition and fees are not significantly correlated for public Division I institutions, which suggests the possibility that institutions have reallocated funds from other core areas to athletics. In this dissertation, the relationship between athletics subsidies and one of the most important core areas of the university – education and related activities – was examined. This relationship was investigated using fixed-effects structural equation models to analyze a panel dataset of public Division I institutions. It was found that total athletics subsidies (school funds and student fees) per student and education and related spending per student were positively correlated. This suggests that rather than decrease educational spending, institutions that increase total athletics subsidies have simultaneously increased their educational expenditures. However, in the analyses involving the more restrictive definition of athletics subsidies, it was shown that athletics subsidies from school funds was not correlated with educational spending. The results also provided some evidence that differences in the relationship between athletics subsidies and educational spending exist according to Carnegie classification and level of athletics competition. The findings from this study have a number of implications for higher education policy and future research. The absence of a negative relationship between athletics subsidies and educational spending suggests that athletics subsidies are not associated with decreases in educational spending that could ultimately harm the quality of education provided by colleges and universities. Furthermore, the existence of a positive correlation between athletics subsidies and educational spending and the fact that core revenues were controlled for in the models suggest the possibility that institutions have redirected funds from other areas to support education and athletics.

This paper seeks to evaluate the effects of peer misbehavior in the classroom on student learning outcomes--namely, if there is any truth behind the old saying that “one bad apple ruins the bunch”. Using experimental data, I show that there is a strong initial relationship between the level of misbehavior in a given classroom and performance on a mathematics evaluation; however, the inclusion of lagged peer achievement in the model causes most of that relationship to be absorbed away, suggesting that the bulk of peer effects stem more from the academic performance of other students than from their behavior.

Determining whether the arts are beneficial to a student’s education is a widely, and hotly debated topic every year in the United States, with many studies published each year demonstrating the impact that the arts have on various educational outcomes, from increased test scores to higher graduation rates. This paper examines previous research on the efficacy of incentives and how students’ participation in extracurricular activities, from sports to the arts, could impact graduation rates. It also develops a model for analyzing the present value of a high school education to a student using a discounted present value analysis and conducts an empirical analysis of 77 high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District over 4 different school years to determine a relationship between the number of art classes offered and graduation rates. The results of the analysis do not support the hypothesis that an increase in the number of art classes offered per student will increase graduation rates, and actually suggests the opposite.

The relation of English Language Arts (ELA) to the economy has played a historic role in educational policy, persisting to today’s corporate reform movement. It is, however, an area that remains under-researched. This study builds upon the limited existing literature base with a systematic replication of the College Board’s National Commission on Writing for America’s Families, Schools, and Colleges’ (NCW) 2004 report, “Writing: A Ticket to Work…Or a Ticket Out.” The guiding research questions for this study are 1) How important is writing in the workplace? 2) Is writing an important hiring consideration? 3) What kind of writing is expected on the job today? 4) Do employees have the writing skills employers seek? 5) Is writing a promotion criterion? 6) Do American companies provide writing training; if so, what is the cost? To answer these questions, human resources executives of Business Roundtable, Fortune 500 (with no redundancy), and Inc. 5000 companies were surveyed regarding the use and importance of writing in their respective organizations. To establish validity evidence, the College Board’s original instrument was pretested and piloted prior to full administration, and a principal components factor analysis was conducted to explore potential latent variables that may explain variance related to respondents’ perceptions regarding the use and importance of writing. Responses were analyzed descriptively and compared to the College Board’s findings, and results suggest that modern employers utilize writing differently and value it more highly now than in 2004. ELA curricula and workforce development initiatives may consequently benefit from updates in order to allow for more equitable economic opportunity.

There has been limited research published about the characteristics of alumni donors in higher education. The majority of the research that has been done focused on large universities, consequently, such research findings may not be generalizable to smaller institutions.;The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent selected demographic, academic, behavioral, and attitudinal variables would discriminate between donors and nondonors in a smaller college or university such as a Comprehensive I institution.;Data for the study were gathered through a questionnaire mailed to a simple random sample of 300 alumni of a Comprehensive I institution. A 72 percent response to the questionnaire was realized. The data gathered were analyzed using descriptive statistics and discriminant analysis techniques available through Statistical Analysis Systems (SAS) software.;It was concluded that it is probable that a Comprehensive I institution can predict group classification of alumni as donors versus nondonors at a success rate of approximately 75 percent and that: (1) the most powerful discriminating variables between alumni donors and nondonors within the population examined were planned visits, household income, designation of funds to the library, year of graduation, identification with the institution, and attendance of family members; (2) it is probable that descriptive and discriminant statistical analysis of selected variables can enhance fund raising strategies; (3) some variables affect all groups of donors similarly, but variables such as institutional size, type, age and location may affect alumni donors differently and to different degrees.

The production of poultry and poultry products is one of Utah's major agricultural industries. In 1945, 22 percent of the farm income in Utah was derived from poultry and poultry products. About 10 percent of the total farm income was from eggs.

Originally presented as the author's Lizentiatsarbeit--Universität Bern, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references.

In this study, the primary question that is addressed is that of whether there exists a relationship between juvenile arrest rates and public school funding. Using publically available FBI arrest data, data from the Current Population Survey (CPS), and Census data, I used two OLS models to answer this question. The first model suggested that there was no statistically significant correlation between school spending per child and juvenile arrest rates. However, it indicated that juvenile arrest rates were correlated with median income, percentage of children below the poverty line, percentage of Black, Hispanic, and Mixed children in the state. The second model had conflicting results. The model suggested that with a $1000 increase in school spending per child, there would be a 0.46 percentage point decrease in juvenile arrest rates. In addition, it maintained that there was a statistically significant correlation between median income and juvenile arrest rates; however, the direction of the effect was positive.