Search

Social scientists with an interest in education policy have devoted a great deal of time in recent years to assessing if the level of per pupil school expenditures is related to any outputs of formal education that are valued by our society. In this paper we develop several alternative models for the purpose of estimating the effects of per pupil school expenditures on future earnings, and on the basis of these estimates we calculate a range of rates of return to expenditures. After a brief review of the literature, we describe our data, develop the models, and the present and discuss the empirical results. Most of the data comes from the University of Michigan Survey Research Center's Income Dynamics Panel. This survey contains information for the five years from 1968 through 1972. The study uses only male respondents who are between the ages of 30 and 55 in 1972. The Michigan Survey has such data as annual and hourly earnings for five years, years of schooling, age, race, and father's years of schooling. Researcher also obtained data from the 1930, 1940, 1950, and 1960 U.S. Censuses of Population on per pupil expenditures and per capita income by state. From 1930, 1940, and 1960 Biennial Surveys of Education, researchers obtained per pupil school expenditures by race for the 17 Southern states with separate school systems prior to 1954. (Author/JM)

The data presented in this document are the results of a survey of physician extenders currently practicing in Michigan as of November 1973. "Physician extender" is a term used for personnel who assist or collaborate with the physician in providing patient care, which means that nurses with additional training who are functioning in expanded roles were also included in this population. The purpose of this study is to examine current utilization in order to develop criteria and guidelines for the definition of the scope of practice of physician assistants and to delineate training standards for assistants. Both physician assistants and their supervising physicians were surveyed. The instruments were designed to provide data on three issues: the market for physician assistants, the impact of assistants on health care delivery, and the satisfaction of physician assistants and their supervising physicians with training and the assistant role. The survey provides an analytical data base for relating the state situation regarding assistants to that of the nation as a whole. It is hoped that this study will raise the visibility of physician assistant training and credentialing issues in the medical community to stimulate their input into the policy development process. (Author/PG)

In November 1972, electorates in California, Colorado, Michigan, and Oregon decisively rejected consitutional amendments that (according to their supporters) would have reduced or eliminated reliance on the property tax as a means of financing education. School finance reformers were perplexed by these defeats. This study sets out to explain the gross inconsistency between the desire, as sampled by widely-accepted polls, of citizens to eliminate the property tax and their behavior in the voting booth. The study's research design combines two methodologies: case studies, including interviews and analysis of secondary sources (campaign literature, etc.), and aggregate voting analysis, using both correlation and multiple regression techniques in order to link support of amendments to census characteristics of localities. The findings indicate two major explanations for the amendments' defeat: the content of the proposals and the constitutional amendment process itself. Socioeconomic status variables were not found to be important explanatory variables. (Author/DN)

It is the position of the Michigan Industrial Education Society, Inc. that industrial arts can and should play an essential role in meeting the provisions of the 1974-75 Michigan State Plan for Vocational Education which serve the career development needs of students from elementary through adult levels. The value of industrial arts was recognized in the emergencies of career education and in the Educational Amendments of 1972. A definition of industrial arts included its concern with the interaction and interface between society, man, and technology. Career education in Michigan is developing on basis of identified life roles being legitimate concepts to guide educational program development. Industrial arts contributes to many facets of career education. In career development, particularly, it has specific roles and responsibilities. Five recommendations for future action by groups and individuals in industrial arts and in education in general are presented in the light of concern with the developmental status of career education, compliance with the accountability model, and lack of fiscal appropriations. (Author/AG)

Eleven indexes of rurality and their effect on the classification of Michigan's 83 counties were investigated. The indexes were based on different concepts of rurality: (1) percent of employment in agriculture, fishing, and forestry; (2) population density and distance to urban centers; and (3) economic conditions. Index rankings were compared to determine if a county's rank varied from one index to another. The two indexes most frequently associated with extreme ranks were then eliminated and a similar analysis performed. The average county still had adifference of 31 between its highest and lowest rank. Further classification into four discrete quartile groupings also revealed substantial difference in county classification depending on the index selected. Rank correlation analysis revealed that 55 pairs of correlations between indexes were significantly different from 0 at the .01 probability level. Index choice, then, did make a difference, since in selecting a particular index, rurality was explicitly or implicity defined. It was concluded that no one index could satisfy the needs of all potential users, since policy is usually problem specific and the rurality index used should also, therefore, be problem specific. (JC)

In a longitudinal study of a 1939-40 birth cohort of Michigan men, the educational, occupational, and earnings costs of discontinuous patterns of school attendance over the life cycle were examined. The intracohort analysis aimed to identify plausible causal antecedents and consequences of discontinuities in schooling in the context of the cohort's socioeconomic life cycle. Men who either had delayed postsecondary schooling after leaving high school or had interrupted postsecondary matriculation achieved fewer years of total schooling than those who experienced continuous enrollment, controlling for socioeconomic origins, educability, and aspirations. Moreover, men undertaking nonregular (noncollege) forms of postsecondary schooling completed fewer (certification) years of school than did college enrollees, after taking into account differential periods of school attendance and the varying social origins, educabilities, and aspirations of these men. For men who completed equivalent levels of education, the college matriculant secured a more prestigious first full-time job than did the nonregular school graduate. While educational discontinuities had no net impact on within-occupation earnings differences, men who had been age-grade retarded in high school earned less annually ($2,440) than did their statistical counterparts. (Author/JM)

The scholarly record, produced, distributed, and procured because of complex social values and by means of complex bureaucratic institutions, is now so large and continues to grow at such a pace that the task for identifying what should be purchased and retained for a particular library agency requires a highly abstract verbal model to explain. Collection development policy statements are not reducible to a locico-mathematical model because of the ranges of each of the variables that are involved in the decision-making process are wide. A perspective is developed based on the communication structure of scholarship and on the system of information dissemination. Given these two institutionalized and interrelated systems a structure can be devised to serve as guidelines for making decisions on the extend of Wayne State University's collecting through establishing the kind and extent of participation of the university in the scholarly communication process. (Author/LS)

The purpose of this paper is to study flows into the pool of medical manpower in Michigan to develop guidelines for medical manpower policies. Assuming the goals were to maximize the number of physicians in Michigan, this paper describes an approach that would show the consequences of different allocations of state funds for achieving these objectives. It is granted that the ultimate goal, rather than maximizing the number of doctors, would be to achieve the highest possible health status for Michigan residents attainable with given resources. To properly evaluate the means to achieve this ultimate goal it is necessary to compare the impact of state funds devoted to increasing the pool of physicians to that of alternative state health and nonhealth expenditures that effect health status. Furthermore, enlarging the pool of physicians is only one of several ways of increasing the availability of health services that, in turn, represents only one approach to improving health status. These qualifications notwithstanding, this study is restricted to the analysis of alternative flows of medical manpower with associate cost implications for the state. Focusing on alternative flows of doctors into and out of Michigan, a framework will be provided for suggesting implications of different ways of state funding of the supply of physician manpower. (Author)

The Michigan accountability system, based on statewide objectives-referenced testing at two grade levels generated considerable controversy, including this response to criticisms of an evaluation of the program by a panel of three persons. The contract under which the evaluation was performed is quoted to show that the authors of the report were independent and not biased against the practice of accountability systems. The findings of the report are summarized, including the judgments that Michigan's six-step model was endorsed, but that the promise of the model had not been fulfilled. It judged that goals were unclear and somewhat redundant; that untenable claims had been made concerning the development of objectives; that the objectives should not be published in book form; that the scheme for tying state funding to test score results was potentially harmful; and that little had been done regarding two steps of the program--development of local evaluation systems and influence on state and local decision making. Criticisms are made of the state's response to the evaluation reports and to other criticisms. It is concluded that professional educators should participate in the accountability movement. (CTM)

The author describes the Content, Input, Process, and Product (CIPP) evaluation model as it was implemented in the Saginaw Public Schools in Michigan. As school superintendent in Saginaw, he describes how the CIPP model provided information to administrators for answering four basic questions: (1) what should we do? (2) how should we do it? (3) are we doing it as planned? and (4) did the program work? The roles of context, input, process, and product evaluations, in planning, structuring, implementing, and recycling decisions are discussed. In addition, the organization of Saginaw's evaluation department is outlined in terms of mandated evaluation, needs assessment, non-mandated evaluation, and proposal development activities. The author stresses the need for cooperation between the administrator and evaluator, and holds that a system of rational educational management can be achieved through program evaluation. He concludes that evaluation is a promising tool to be used in improving educational practices, programs, and products. (JAC)

This document investigates the regulation of dental assistants in Michigan. Emphasis is placed on increased dental productivity from increased use of auxiliaries, utilization of dental auxiliaries, and educational and training requirements for certification and licensure. Results of the investigation indicate: (1) support should be given for the use of expanded function auxiliaries (EFAs) in dental practice in Michigan; (2) serious consideration be given to the exclusion of provisions reserving dental functions to specific categories of dental auxiliary; and (3) education and training requirements should be made as open and flexible as possible to assure that an adequate supply of low cost, but highly competent labor, will be available for practice. (Author/MJM)