The higher education institutes aspire to gain reputation of quality having accreditation from internationally recognized awarding bodies. The accreditation leads and provides quality assurance for education. Although distance learning becomes a significant part of the education system in the 21st century, there is still a common opinion that the…

Discussions about improving public education often focus on outcomes without considering how schools and districts can accomplish those outcomes. Research shows that using a continuous improvement process has proven successful in healthcare, manufacturing, and technology, and may hold potential for use in education as well. This brief defines and…

This review examines applications of quality management (QM) in language education. QM approaches have been adapted from methodologies developed in industrial and commercial settings, and these are briefly described. Key aspects of QM in language education are the definition of purpose, descriptions of principles and practice, including various…

Support for early care and education among policy makers and the public is at an unprecedented high. As investments in early care and education programs in the United States continue to rise, the issue of quality becomes increasingly critical. This article addresses the need for adequate infrastructure to support high-quality early care and…

The rise of the research center has changed the landscape of U.S. research enter-prise. It has also created a number of evaluation challenges, particularly when considering strategically focused, multifaceted cooperative research centers (CRCs). The author argues that although recent CRC evaluation efforts have gone a long way toward meeting the…

Education reforms such as "A Nation at Risk" and "Goals 2000" have come and gone. However, we can be confident that the goal of student improvement shall not pass if the core mission is student learning. The true mission of learning has prompted educators to ponder the following questions: How do we need each student to behave?…

Presents a model of quality assurance for colleges and universities, distilled from key concepts in the literature about quality assurance and higher education culture and practice. The model has continuous quality improvement in student learning at its center, and includes elements of institutional values, faculty evaluation and development,…

Indiana's Comprehensive Action Plan (I-CAP) provides a framework for program excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement in adult education. The action plan includes guiding principles and benchmarks for quality programs. Adult education programs are evaluated annually on these 10 established principles of program quality: educational…

This document describes six different approaches to outcomes assessments, approaches that are named in the titles of chapters 2 through 7. The chapters and authors are as follows: "Perspectives on Assessment Policy and Practice" (Bragg, Harmon); "Total Quality Management" (Bragg); "Assessing Student Success" (Harmon);…

The passage of the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Amendments of 1998 (Perkins III) and the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) marked a new era in the performance accountability partnership among the states, the U.S. Department of Education, and the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). Evaluation of vocational education…