Gert J. J. Biesta is a widely known and respected scholar in the field of education. He has published a large number of articles, books, chapters and other work. He is currently professor of Education in the Department of Education at Brunel University London. This interview with Biesta touched on a wide range of topics. This article is a…

"Degrees of Freedom" challenges California to include currently and formerly incarcerated students in the vision set by the state's 1964 Master Plan for Higher Education--a vision of college access for all, for the benefit of the entire state. A college education strengthens economies, changes lives and renews communities, and yet, for…

Programme evaluation is essential for quality assurance in education. In this paper, we describe our evaluation strategy for the first year of a new medical programme. Although we used multiple methods in the evaluation, the use of the focus group method was core. This paper reports our experiences of focus groups for this purpose. We describe the…

Authorizers are as varied as the schools they oversee. Some are responsible for just one charter, while others monitor hundreds of charters serving tens of thousands of students. Some are school districts, while others are independent statewide boards, universities, not-for-profits, or state education agencies. Regardless of their size and type,…

A major motorcycle vendor, based in the U.S. Midwest, is the world's largest custom V-Twin motorcycle manufacturer and domestically the second largest motorcycle manufacturer behind Harley-Davidson. This project describes the process used used by a K-State undergraduate distance learning student to design and develop the initial version of a…

This article describes a pay-for-performance system developed for Minnesota nursing homes. In effect, nursing homes can retain a greater proportion of the difference between their costs and the average costs on the basis of their quality scores. The quality score is a derived and weighted composite measure currently composed of five elements:…

This paper first presents and then discusses the attitudes towards and perceptions of education officers regarding introducing a school-based continuous assessment of speaking in the Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) ESL examinations as provided for in the BGCSE English syllabus in Botswana. Three categories of education…

Quality Rating System (QRS) initiatives define levels of quality based on research and then support providers with funding and technical assistance to increase their quality. Each program is assessed and given a number of "stars" to indicate to parents what level of quality the program has reached. In this article, the author describes…

Quality assurance in medical education is a complex matter. Institutions and external critics of accreditation processes often question the objectivity of peer judgements. Members of accreditation panels similarly often feel at a loss for a lack of mechanisms to help them arrive at a collective assessment of the performance of an institution. In…

This article explores the issues of trust, control, professional autonomy and accountability in higher education quality assurance in the UK. The main part of this article is conceptual, but it includes results from semi-structured interviews with academic staff that were conducted at two "new university" business schools. Both…

Five librarians considered authorities on quality cataloging in the OCLC Online Union Catalog were interviewed to obtain their views on the current level of quality control in the OCLC database, the responsibilities of OCLC and individual libraries in improving the quality of records, and the consequences of quality control problems. (CLB)

Observations on impact of WILSONLINE (online access to H. W. Wilson's indexes) on the industry, library services, and end users are drawn from interviews with reference librarians, H. W. Wilson administrative staff, and monitors of database industry. Issues addressed include quality, thoroughness, ease of use, and marketing (demand, pricing,…

The Department of Defense (DOD) has undertaken major research and development programs to improve the quality of their documentation, yet there continue to be major deficiencies in the quality of the manuals produced. In an attempt to identify factors in the design and development process that may be contributing to such deficiencies, this project…

The work of internal verifiers (IVs) is integral to ensuring that the operation of vocational qualifications meets the local needs of learners and employers, while also maintaining reliable quality nationally and throughout occupational sectors. Arguably, though, the role of IVs in the management of vocational learning often remains narrowly…

Briefly describes the automated system as it relates to cataloging processes at each of six university libraries. Areas that have been most affected are noted--authority control, catalog maintenance, decentralization of original cataloging and other technical services functions, enhanced public access to materials, and quality control. (25…