Student Self-assessment for Undergraduate, Graduate and Imernational Finance Courses

Assessing student learning can be exceedingly challenging considering that as faculty we never really know what a student knows prior to entering our classroom and what value-added material has been assimilated during the academic quarter. This research paper introduces a self-assessment instrument that focuses on ten major finance topics and reports the results of the administration of the self-assessment tool for finance education at the undergraduate and graduate level in courses taught in the United States and abroad. Ten topics of importance to most finance curriculum design were selected as the focus topics. The research methodology employed uses a pre-/post- test comparison with ＂understanding＂ being measured on a five-point Lichert scale as implemented in five different fmanee courses. Significant measurable differences occurred in each of the courses using this finance assessment instrument with overall average improvement of understanding by the students as much as one entire point. For exarnple, 1.5 mean score for the pre-test and 2.4 mean score for the post -test for an introductory finance class at the undergraduate level in a college of business. Additional improvements were assessed in each of the courses surveyed.

Effect of School-Based Income Generating Activities on the Financial Performance of Public Secondary Schools in Kenya

This study was conducted to determine the value added by Income-Generating Activities （IGAs） on the financial performance of public secondary schools, in terms of assets, liability portfolio, and net worth. Secondary school managers have the gigantic task of balancing meager resources between subsistence and development needs as well as good performance in national examinations. However, macro-economic shocks such as inflation, fuel shortage, and crop failure, among others, often militate against the success of public schools. School-based IGAs enable public schools to cope with external economic shocks, without necessarily passing down budgetary adjustments to parents. However, the country lacks a clear policy guideline to facilitate the initiation, management, accounting, reviewing, and financial reporting of IGA projects. Besides, there is no documented information regarding the value added by IGA initiatives to the financial performance of public secondary schools. The study found that IGA and non-IGA schools were significantly different in terms of category, student population, age, annual income, and number of paid workers. Schools having IGAs were 1.9 times more likely to own as many assets as schools not having IGAs. Besides, IGA schools were about 2.2 times less likely to have their liability in excess of the median threshold. Regarding net worth, the study found that schools having IGAs were about 2.1 times more likely to be operating above the median threshold; suggesting that schools having IGAs were wealthier than non-IGA schools. Based on the findings, this study concludes that IGA projects were beneficial to schools by improving the ability of schools to accumulate assets and manage their liabilities. The study recommends the need to： formulate an appropriate policy framework to guide and standardize IGA activities; initiate suitable training programs for school IGA managers; as well as engage business development managers to advice schools on IGA matters.

A Reflection of Minimum Adequate Education in South Carolina More Than Fifty Years Later

The issues and challenges of minimum adequate public school education in the State of South of South Carolina has been a struggle between lawmakers and taxpayers for more than fifty years. The enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 led to forced school integration, busing, and led to whites＇ physical moving out of selected school districts. Selected public schools filed a lawsuit against the State of South Carolina to the Supreme Court with the claim of failing to provide adequate and equal education to all children in the state. This reflection focuses on the Abbeville case in context, funding issues, and inadequate facilities, which concludes with a reflective view of the Brown v. The Board of Edueation 1954 decision.

Capital Budgeting： Methods, Aspects, and Issues

This paper furthers the understanding of capital budgeting （CB） processes. It emphasizes the assumed disposition of the forecast cash benefits from projects. The two reasons for CB are discussed. First, which projects are and are not acceptable from a financial prospective？ Second, of financially acceptable projects, CB methods can rank or order projects relative to desirability. Under conditions of certainty, the paper describes and contrasts three primary methods： pay back （PB）, net present value （NPV）, and internal rate of return （IRR） and three secondary methods： profitability index （PI）, terminal value （TV）, and modified internal rate of return （MIRR）. The presentation lists the strengths and weaknesses of each method in order to direct attention to some of the many aspects of CB decisions that firm managers should consider. Next, approaches for taking risk into consideration are discussed. The discussion raises the important issues of what to do with the net cash benefits from various projects when and if they are received. Finally, the paper provides flexible tools and example problems for teaching CB in a variety of contexts, such as professional corporate training or academic coursework.

Path analysis on educational fiscal decision-making mechanism in China

In China’s current educational fiscal decision making,problems are as follows:no law to trust or not abiding by available laws,absence of equity and efficiency,as well as the standardization of decision-making procedures.It is necessary to set up effective fiscal decision-making mechanism in education and rationally devise reliable paths.