Situating strategic planning and budgeting within the organization and administration of higher education institutions, this text provides effective and proven strategies for today’s change-oriented leaders. Bringing together distinguished administrators from two-year, four-year, public, and private colleges and universities, this volume provides both practical and effective guidance on the intricacies of the institutional structure, its functional activities, and contingency planning. Organization and Administration in Higher Education orients future administrators to the major areas of an academic institution and will assist higher education administrators in leading their institutions to excellence. New in the third edition is an expanded discussion of diversity, equity, and inclusion as well as updated coverage across various institutional settings including community colleges. Additionally, the authors provide guidance on managing crises and institutional disruptions such as those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Powers and Schloss offer refreshed end-of-chapter discussion prompts and online instructor materials, including PowerPoints to support multimodal learning and new methods of teaching found here: https://instituteforeffectiveness.org/organization-and-administration-of-higher-education

A heated debate is raging over our nation’s public schools and how they should be reformed, with proposals ranging from imposing national standards to replacing public education altogether with a voucher system for private schools. Combining decades of experience in education, the authors propose an innovative approach to solving the problems of our school system and find a middle ground between these extremes. Reinventing Public Education shows how contracting would radically change the way we operate our schools, while keeping them public and accessible to all, and making them better able to meet standards of achievement and equity. Using public funds, local school boards would select private providers to operate individual schools under formal contracts specifying the type and quality of instruction. In a hands-on, concrete fashion, the authors provide a thorough explanation of the pros and cons of school contracting and how it would work in practice. They show how contracting would free local school boards from operating schools so they can focus on improving educational policy; how it would allow parents to choose the best school for their children; and, finally, how it would ensure that schools are held accountable and academic standards are met. While retaining a strong public role in education, contracting enables schools to be more imaginative, adaptable, and suited to the needs of children and families. In presenting an alternative vision for America’s schools, Reinventing Public Education is too important to be ignored.