Childcare quality is often thought to be important for influencing children's subsequent attainment at school. The English Government regulates the quality of early education by setting minimum levels of qualifications for workers and grading settings based on a national Inspectorate (OfSTED). This paper uses administrative data on over two…

The focus in this article is on Brazilian education policy, specifically quality assurance and evaluation. The starting point is that quality, measured by means of large-scale assessments, is one of the key discursive justifications for educational change. The article addresses the questions of how quality evaluation became a significant feature…

Although International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement-pioneered international large-scale assessment (ILSA) of education is now a well-established science, non-practitioners and many users often substantially misunderstand how large-scale assessments are conducted, what questions and challenges they are designed to…

This article is about developing school-based self-assessing recursive pedagogies and case/action research practices and/or approaches in schools, and teachers, teacher researchers and researchers simultaneously producing and theorising their own practices using second-order cybernetics as a thinking tool. It is a move towards pragmatic…

This research reports upon the impact of two concurrent processes of Special Measures and academisation applied to a primary school in the north of England as a result of an unsatisfactory inspection by the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted). The aim of the study is to describe how the process of being placed in special measures, coupled…

This article examines key lessons learned by Russia while developing national assessment system in education. It shows that reforms are more likely to succeed backed with sustained political support, clearly defined goals or priorities, gradual introduction, and open discussion with stakeholders. [This article was translated by Lucy Gunderson.]

AJK (Azad Jammu & Kashmir) government is a small administrative unit under overall sovereignty of Pakistan. It has a total area of 13297 sq kilometers with a population of about 3.8 million. This study critically examines the problems of primary education system in AJK State specifically in govt. primary schools in Pakistan administrative…

Benchmarking is a very common real-life function occurring every moment unnoticed. It has travelled from industry to education like other quality disciplines. Initially benchmarking was used in higher education. .Now it is diffusing into other areas including TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), which has yet to devise a…

Although most Guatemalan rural students currently have access to primary school, there are large differences in the levels of learning that take place among different populations and in different contexts. This paper uses multiple data and methods to examine the interrelated factors underlying achievement disparities in Guatemalan primary schools.…

With decentralisation becoming increasingly widespread across Europe, evaluation and accountability are becoming key issues in ensuring quality provision for all (Altrichter & Maag Merki, 2010; Eurydice, 2004). In Europe, the dominant arrangement for educational accountability is school inspections. The purpose of this research is to identify…

This article is a validation study of two national large-scale tests that measure the language proficiency of 11/12 year-old English learners in Norway and Slovenia. Following the example of Alderson and Banerjee (2008), the authors of the article have employed the EALTA guidelines for good practice to validate the tests, and to formulate major…

Information-rich environments are created to promote data use in schools for the purpose of self-evaluation and quality assurance. However, providing feedback does not guarantee that schools will actually put it to use. One of the main stumbling blocks relates to the interpretation and diagnosis of the information. This study examines the…

Among the practical applications of statistics is the collection of data from manufacturing processes. Often collected in the form of a time series, data collected from a series of measurements show the variation in those measurements, such as mass of a product manufactured. Limits are set for quality control and if these are exceeded then a…

This report was prepared by the National Child Care Information and Technical Assistance Center (NCCIC) in partnership with staff from the Child Care Bureau. NCCIC compiled data reported in approved CCDF Plans and relevant attachments submitted by Lead Agencies for a selected number of questions. The information presented reflects some of the…

This proceedings volume of InCoTEPD 2018 covers many ideas for handling a wide variety of challenging issues in the field of education. The outstanding ideas dealing with these issues result in innovation of the system. There are many innovation strategies resulting from recent research that are discussed in this book. These strategies will become…