A Management System for

K-12 Education Agencies

Available From S. W. Bliss and Associates

Background

This article provides an introduction to a model of an education management system titled the Educational Resource Allocation-Utilization System. Dr. Sam W. Bliss and Dr. William H. Curtis developed this Model over a period of three years. The contents of this article are a brief version of Chapter One in an eight-chapter publication that presents a comprehensive description of the Model.

Because of our experience over the past 25 years and many contacts in the field of education, a number of our colleagues encouraged us to design a management model which would represent the best of these experiences and to present them in a document which would be useful to education leaders. As a result of this encouragement, and our own convictions, the Educational Resource Utilization-Allocation System became a reality in the complete text of the publication.

The major background of our experience includes the following activities:

Association with many administrators in school districts and their accountability models has been extensive. Many of our ideas were shared with them and they reciprocated. Although their models are not replicas of ours, they do contain many features that are similar. These school districts have demonstrated a willingness to utilize the best of several concepts in the creation of their own models. Importantly, they have sought help when necessary, and they have effectively recognized and utilized inherent talent within their school districts.

Education A Big Business

During the past three decades education has reached a level wherein it must be considered one of the largest businesses in the nation. Therefore, it is only natural that our constituency has increasingly and emphatically demanded that educators must give more attention to the planning, allocation and utilization of resources. These demands are causing a dramatic shift from an input orientation in educational planning to an output (outcomes) emphasis. The public is concerned with the question of: What are we getting for our tax money? Educators at all levels are facing more accountability for their performance and the success of their students. School superintendents, particularly, are giving a much more thorough accounting of their stewardship. Regardless of the opinion of some skeptics, there is ample evidence that the accountability concept is here to stay.

Recently, practitioners have been planning to achieve greater accountability through various applications of the "Systems Approach to Educational Management". Enterprising educators in many school districts have continued their efforts to design and develop better accountability models.

This publication has been kept relatively brief intentionally. We have tried to write it especially for busy school administrators who provide the leadership needed for an effective educational program. Furthermore, since our publication places strong emphasis on comprehensive planning, resource allocation-utilization and evaluation, we believe it will fill a void for the practicing school administrator. The comprehensive planning process in our Model includes many of the concepts of strategic planning. Also, it should be noted that our Model supports the basic structures of school-based management.

A Management System for School Districts of the Next Century

The Educational Resource Allocation-Utilization System is a management system designed to assist administrators in the planning and resource allocation activities of local school districts. Specifically, this model has been designed to serve the management needs of school districts during the 1990s, the Year 2000 and beyond. Also, the Educational Resource Allocation-Utilization System processes are useful for educational organizations that must manage for both growth and decline in student enrollment or resources.

The basic premise of the Educational Resource Allocation-Utilization System is that educational organizations are uniquely organized for instructional purposes and specifically for teaching-learning activities. Special need characteristics of local educational agencies which are incorporated into the design of this Model are listed in the following four statements. Educational systems:

Designed for Education Administrators

There are other good reasons why the Educational Resource Allocation-Utilization System is useful for educational administrators. It provides them with a management system that can deal both with a growing or declining environment. This capacity is inherent in the Model’s structure. Related to this, it is recommend that each program plan for the following fiscal year should include at least three options—a continuation, a reduced, and an expanded version. Therefore, planners could choose to continue the program at the same level of resources, choose to reduce or terminate the program, or choose to expand program resources. Also, developers could, if desired, create other variations of options within the three basic ones. The point is that the Educational Resource Allocation-Utilization System provides the means for managing growth and/or decline. In addition the Model provides educational administrators with the structure for implementing a school-based management system in their district. This is because the concepts and principles of school-based management are inherent features in this Model. The Model encourages the participation of school personnel, teachers and citizens in the planning and operation of instruction and support programs.

Practical Benefits

Additional practical benefits of the Educational Resource Allocation-Utilization System are as follows. This Model:

The following identifying statements assist in the description of the Educational Resource Allocation-Utilization System. It is an educational management system that:

Furthermore, assumptions underlying the Educational Resource Allocation-Utilization System are:

A Changing Management System Need

The management requirements of school districts operating in the next century will be vastly different from those of earlier decades. A combination of circumstances, both external and internal is impacting on the management processes of school districts. An energy shortage with its associated rising costs, teacher shortages, changing student enrollment, less than adequate financial resources, and current national and international economic problems, are some of the major factors which are affecting school district management. Such change has not brought about a termination of previously developed management systems; rather it has created vastly new and expanded educational management requirements.

Management Need

There has always been a need for managing the operation of local school agencies. Importantly, this need has encouraged researchers, developers, and educational administrators to create new and better systems. They have utilized local, state, and federal resources to develop management systems useful in the management of the affairs of local educational agencies.

During the past years, changes in management requirements of local educational agencies have been in reply to an environment of growth and expansion. Perhaps, the three decades most noticeable for growth and rapid expansion were the 1960s, 1970s and the 1980s. Management systems during the growth years were designed for managing this continuous expansion. Resources for education were plentiful and new funds in increasing amounts were available because of ever expanding student enrollments. Generally, management planning and decision-making during this period of plentiful resources were less rigorous and dealt mostly with the management of education in a growth environment.

There was little need to plan, to analyze education programs intensively, and to allocate resources carefully. This less rigorous attention to educational planning for the use of resources does not mean that they were wasted. Instead, there was little need for careful management during a time of increasing resources resulting from rising enrollments and higher levels of funding from federal, state and local sources.

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Educational Environment Change

The educational environment in the United States has changed drastically during the last decade, as has the economy of the nation. Many state governments have been reluctant to allocate additional funds to education. Many school districts in this nation are experiencing a decrease in student enrollment. Some of this is due to the charter school movement. This usually causes a corresponding decrease in funding for the purposes of education. However, there are exceptions to this declining enrollment situation. They are located primarily in the so-called "sun-belt" areas of the United States. In these "sun-belt" geographic areas student enrollment is increasing. Furthermore, the financing of education is not keeping pace with inflation and the increased costs. Students entering universities are not choosing a program that will qualify them for a teaching certificate. During the next century there will be a growing shortage of qualified teachers. Salaries of educational personnel, especially in the teaching ranks, are far below that of other professions.

Education A Major Mission of Society

American society now recognizes education as a major mission. Education has become a large, complex, and very costly operation. Because of these factors, congressmen, state legislators, local school boards, educators, and the lay public have expressed increasing concern about the allocation and utilization of resources for educational operations at all levels. The need for increased educational resources has produced a corresponding counter-demand for the improvement of management in school districts.

Many recent events in the United States have encouraged the development of improved educational management systems. They are:

Management—What Is It?

A study of the literature on management suggests that there may be as many definitions as there are students of management. Generally, a common concept inherent in many of these definitions is the manager’s responsibility for establishing and accomplishing the goals and objectives of the organization, regardless of whether or not this would involve the administration of a school district, division unit, or classroom. Therefore, management may be defined as "working with and through individuals and groups to accomplish organizational goals."

Management and administration are frequently used synonymously, but whatever distinction has been made between them, the difference is somewhat philosophical. The term, administration, was once preferred when describing the organizational leadership in public institutions like schools, government division, and other public agencies. "Management" was preferable when describing capitalistic enterprises.

Historically, institutions like the church, the armed forces, government and education are related to administrative skills, and those in business and industry are related to management skills. Nevertheless, present day literature generally disregards the historical distinction and treats management and administration as being the same.

Objectives of Sound Management

Central to any discussion of management are the managerial functions, which comprise the management process. Common belief is that presidents, department heads, foremen, supervisors, school principals, superintendents, college deans, and government leaders acting in their managerial capacity, all do the same things. Generally, there is recognition that administrators perform four major functions and that these functions differ very little between organizations, other than in emphasis. There are many authors who have identified the key management functions as planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling. Luther Gulick (1937) suggested that the major functions of the managerial process are embodied in the acronym, "POSDCRB", Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting and Budgeting.

Management incorporates the concept of financial management, because every management decision involves financing. Thus, when managers are engaged in strategic planning and/or program development they must eventually be concerned with the cost of resources required for implementation of their programs.

Financial management decisions have one or more of the following effects:

All financial decisions affect the program effectiveness and efficiency of the organization to a lesser or greater extent. The following objectives of good management are related to the effectiveness and efficiency of an educational system:

School-Based Management

A significant improvement in management practices for school districts is under way in the nation’s educational system. These changes result from the many difficult new issues confronting educational managers. Examples of these newer management systems are School-Based Planning and Budgeting, Management by Objectives, Educational Priority Budgeting, and Zero-Base Budgeting.

A number of states have new policies and/or procedures designed to promote decentralization of educational planning and budgeting to the school attendance center level. Throughout the nation, leaders of several local educational agencies have developed their own decentralized school-based educational planning and budgeting methodology. Clearly, these school districts are the vanguard of an educational management system evolution. The school-based educational planning and budgeting methodology is a steady and expanding movement in local education agencies of this nation.

It is not the intent of this article to explore school-based management in great detail. Rather the main point is that this management model does provide the basic foundation essential for structuring a school-based management model.

School-Based educational program planning and budgeting usually provides the foundation for an organization to practice participatory management concepts. Central office management staff, principals of schools and managers of responsibility centers is given the authority to plan and allocate resources. Generally management planning and decision making activities are decentralized to the local school and division level. Thus, principals, teachers and the community served by the school are deeply involved in determining goals, objectives, programs and the resources required for the operation of the school.

In addition the managers of the school and divisions are provided the tools for obtaining information relating to their operation. This information can then be used to maintain management control over their operations during the school year.

Participatory Management

There are a number of management philosophies and their distinctions range from a complete dichotomy to only slight differences which are difficult to determine. However, because of their relationship to this Model, two are presented that have particular relevance.

Jack R. Gibbs developed a paper entitled, "Fear and Facade: Defensive Management," in a book, Science and Human Affairs, edited by Richard Farson (1965). His paper was a comparison of two management styles, "defensive" and "participative." Fear and distrust characterize the first. Subtle persuasion, manipulative control, demand for excessive reports, exercise of "tight rein" on expense vouchers, and many inspections, all camouflage the fear and distrust. By contrast, the key signs of "participative" management are low fear and high trust. Openness, a maximum of self-determination, and few manager-induced controls are characteristics of this approach. There is high trust and confidence in people in an organization utilizing participative management concepts. Organization managers are open and frank with their colleagues and subordinates. There is a free sharing of information and communication in both vertical and horizontal classifications within the organization. The participatory manager will provide opportunities for people to maximize self-image, will allow for greater self-determination, will permit shared decision-making and will encourage open involvement in developmental activities. There are few or no imposed controls since the controls emerge from group processes, as the need becomes apparent. People establish their own sets of objectives and programs related to perceived needs. Motivation occurs internally, and people explore their own capacities and interests in order to obtain a higher degree of achievement. Farson pointed out that participatory management creates independence, builds a productive and creative organization, and promotes inventive groups of people who develop their potential to the fullest. The participative management style represents an emerging philosophy of management in many school districts. This Model supports the philosophy of participative management.

Defensive Management

The contrast to participative management is "defensive" management. A manager who practices defensive management maintains a high amount of control over the flow of information and communication within the organization. Also, information flows from the top down, and it is carefully and deliberately "corrected" for purposes of improving morale, to reduce fears, to enhance the manager’s image, and to justify management decisions.

Low trust, data manipulation, persuasion, and high control characterize defensive management. These four dimensions of social behavior represent the "feeling" or climate within an organization where the defensive management style is practiced. Also included in the defensive management style is its "reward" system. An extrinsic reward system generally causes people in the organization to resist, rebel, and to become highly competitive. An extrinsic reward system does not satisfy the human needs for self-satisfaction and self-respect, which are usually realized only by the achievement of an individual’s personal goals. Defensive management causes people in the organization to be submissive and dependent upon controls. Numerous controls are clearly evident in organizations that operate under defensive styles of management.

Does defensive management allow for the maximum production of an organization’s outcomes? Most administrators say no to this question. Yet defensive management still exists in many organizations. By now, it should be evident that certain types of management systems will not operate effectively in an organization that practices defensive management techniques. If the design of a particular management system requires people participation, creation of innovative and optional means for achieving goals, and decentralization of planning authority and decision-making, it will not operate successfully in an organization dominated by defensive management procedures.

Participatory management is an alternative to defensive management. There is high trust and confidence in people. Here, organization managers are open and frank with their colleagues and subordinates. There is a free sharing of information and communication in both vertical and horizontal classifications within the organization. The participatory manager will provide opportunities for people to maximize self-image; will allow for greater self-determination; will permit shared decision-making; and will encourage open involvement in developmental activities. There are few or no imposed controls since they emerge from group processes, as the need becomes apparent. People establish their own sets of objectives and programs related to perceived needs. Motivation occurs internally and people explore their own capacities and interests in order to obtain a higher degree of achievement. Farson pointed out that participatory management creates independence, builds a productive and creative organization, and promotes inventive groups of people who develop their potential to the fullest.

The Four Major Processes

The Educational Resource Allocation-Utilization System is a composite of the newer management systems and practices emerging in the school districts throughout the United States and Canada. The Model has a structure that supports school-based decision-making through the operation of its four major processes:

The basic tenets of the participatory management style are compatible with the installation and operation of the Educational Resource Allocation-Utilization System in an educational organization. This type of management System encourages and supports the sharing of authority and responsibility throughout the entire organization. The implementation of the Educational Resource Allocation-Utilization System in a school district could be the means for making the scarce resources of the community available to the student on the basis of need rather than on the basis of vested interest or political whim. This System provides an organized methodology for assisting educational managers to engage in planning, resource allocation (budgeting of resources), appropriate utilization of the resources and to evaluate how well they have accomplished their plans. An educational need could be evaluated, not only by its financial and/or economic factors, but also by its esthetic, cultural, and educational worth related to the growth of students and to the American Society.

Summary

Various management concepts were discussed in this article in order to establish a foundation for the understanding of the Educational Resource Allocation-Utilization System. Two distinct types of management styles were compared briefly for the purpose of emphasizing a management style that is compatible to our management system model.

Having knowledge of management provides the foundation and prepares one to better understand the processes, components, and implementation strategies associated with the Educational Resource Allocation-Utilization System.

The Educational Resource Allocation-Utilization System is a structure for planning and decision-making that includes the identification of needs (problems), creation of goals, development of programs, and evaluation of information related to process and products. Also, embraced by the system is the participatory management style. The participatory management style requires the involvement of people, high trust, a free sharing of information, and a decentralization of planning authority and responsibility throughout the organization. The system provides a management structure that encourages and supports the making of rational decisions based upon educational data and professional judgment.

Administrators who are practicing the planning and decision-making processes based upon information analysis and the participatory management style will benefit from the Educational Resource Allocation-Utilization System. Also, they should achieve greater success in the use of the management system in their school districts. Conversely, those administrators who have no philosophy of management and who do not believe in shared decision-making and decentralization of responsibility will scoff at the implications, and will ignore the implementation of this management system.

Through the utilization of such a system, school districts can more effectively and efficiently plan for the use of educational resources. America’s resources are not limitless, as we know now. Educational institutions must, for America’s welfare, use the nation’s valuable resources as efficiently and effectively as is humanly possible. Educational leaders must develop and install management systems that will use resources to maximize learning opportunities for students. The particular management systems used in our nation’s schools must obtain the most productive use of our scarce resources.

The continued prosperity and welfare of American society is highly dependent upon the internal strength and management of our public educational institutions which provides the knowledge and skills essential to maintain a strong nation.

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