The George Mason University (Mason) offices responsible for institutional reporting and assessment were merged to strengthen and solidify their functions and expertise. The organizational structure creating the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Planning (OIEP) was intended to engineer a new paradigm where assessment would inform the…

It is incumbent upon universities to deliver quality degree programs that produce employable graduates with discipline-specific knowledge and a well-developed set of generic skills known as graduate attributes. To safeguard the achievement of these outcomes, this paper argues for a holistic, longitudinal approach to degree planning known as…

Open educational resources (OERs) are an alternative textbook to publisher materials used by colleges and universities. OER materials have a cost advantage for students; many are published as free or cost-reduced textbooks for students. The authors developed and piloted an OER textbook for Business Law I in the Management program of the School of…

This chapter proposes approaches for assessing learners and evaluating courses and curriculum that could be used by directors of health professions education (HPE) programs to determine the effectiveness and impact of their programs.

Never before in the history of the teaching profession has there been such a need for comprehensive evaluation of all teacher preparation programs, most especially professional development schools (PDSs). This need is driven not only by the pressures of the age of accountability, but also by the need for the PDS movement to act ethically and…

Distance writing programs still struggle with assessment strategies that can evaluate student writing as well as their ability to communicate about that writing with peers at a distance. This article uses Kim, Smith and Maeng's 2008 distance education program assessment scheme to evaluate a single distance writing program at Old Dominion…

The Comparing Options in Secondary Mathematics: Investigating Curriculum (COSMIC) project is a longitudinal study of student learning from two types of mathematics curricula: integrated and subject-specific. Previous large-scale research studies such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) indicate that numerous variables are…

Ten questions to help school districts assess how well or how poorly their teaching/learning goals are being attained. (Author)

With an increasing prevalence of virtual high school programs in the United States, a better understanding of evaluative tools available for distance educators and administrators is needed. These evaluative tools would provide opportunities for assessment and a determination of success within virtual schools. This article seeks to provide an…

A group of external consultants conducted a review of the political science programs at the institutions within the state university system of Florida and made recommendations based on their findings. Their research focused on three questions: (1) How well does the department integrate itself into the university's mission? (2) How well does the…

An initial review of philosophy and religious studies programs in the state university system of Florida was conducted in 1983-84. This is a report of the five year follow-up review conducted to assess the progress made in response to the original recommendations and to report on current program status. A systemwide overview with recommendations…

In July 1989, the Tacoma Board of Directors adopted a 5-year strategic educational plan, which included a curriculum strategy and action plan. A 6-year curriculum adoption cycle was proposed during the 1989-90 school year, and an audit of current procedures for developing and implementing curriculum was conducted in 1991. This report describes the…

This evaluation sought to determine the impact on students of the materials developed for Project Learning Tree (PLT). Three grade groupings were analyzed: (1) elementary (grades 4-6); (2) intermediate (grades 7-9); and (3) high school (grades 10-12). The basic design consisted of a treatment versus control group using a posttest designed to…

A guide and handbook for planners, developers, and evaluators of educational programs and products, this book discusses the various settings in which an evaluator commonly works and the many roles he performs. The book divides the evaluator's work into three activities: establishing perspective, planning the evaluation, and analyzing the data.…

A review of the discipline of economics as it exists in the State University System of Florida is presented. The introduction presents a description of economics as a discipline and a discussion of economics programs from a state perspective. The topics covered included business economics versus economics, college of business versus college of…