High-quality care in the earliest years of life has been shown to relate to positive developmental outcomes for children, including improved early academic skills, social-emotional competencies, and cognitive functioning. Unfortunately, the early care experiences of many children are not always high quality; rather, research suggests that…

Suggestions for restructuring marketing efforts within colleges and universities stress the institution's primary profit center: student recruitment and retention. Techniques such as continuous quality improvement and implementation of a task force concept are recommended as a way of synergistically employing all the institution's assets and…

The future of educational design, development, and improvement lies in integrating "how" with "what" and "why." Critical strategic thinking factors include abandoning comfort zones; focusing on ends, not means; linking all three planning and result levels; starting with an ideal vision; preparing measurable…

This report discusses basic issues in the provision of residential services for people with developmental disabilities. Main points of the discussion include: (1) the service system for this population is in a crisis of accountability as meeting safety and quality requirements threatens to become counterproductive; (2) the current system is well…

The impact of implementation of a quality system on Australia's vocational education and training (VET) classrooms was examined through case study research with more than 100 quality managers, head teachers, and teachers in 8 technical and further education (TAFE) institutes in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, and Western…

The prospects for managing the tension between accountability and improvement in further and higher education (FHE) were examined through a literature review and a 5-year ethnographic study of a change management project at a higher education college in Wales. Special attention was paid to the following challenges facing FHE: globalization; the…