The purposes of the historical study are to describe Methodist education in Texas from 1840 to 1900; to find the reasons behind the proliferation of Methodist institutions after the Civil War and the problems involved in this development; to analyze centralization efforts after 1900 as a pattern of Methodist educational institutions emerged; to describe the evolution of Southern Methodist University as a regional college West of the Mississippi; to give brief descriptive overviews of the other six Methodist institutions in Texas; to describe the current status of Methodist higher education in Texas; to discuss Methodist higher education in Texas at the present and to project the possible future development of Methodist higher education in Texas.

The problems with which this study is concerned are to determine the applicability of the systems analysis process to educational settings and to provide data concerning the beliefs and attitudes of educators concerning educational computing. A questionnaire was used in a case study of a medium-sized Texas independent school district to measure the beliefs and attitudes of educators toward educational applications of computers. Chi-square goodness of fit tests that use specified frequencies were applied for each statement and each corresponding distribution of responses.