During the last two decades, many higher education systems in the world have attempted to evaluate and improve the quality of education, research and services at the university and higher education level. Countries which have been successful in these attempts have initiated continuous evaluation and applied internal evaluation as a basis for…

Central Arizona College (CAC) has leveraged EMSI to design the most effective regional strategies for academic/economic prediction analysis. Accessing current and reliable data on occupations, skills requirements, and demographics, CAC can extract, analyze, and present this data to academic programs, advisory boards, economic development councils,…

The age of accountability in higher education is here, but there has been virtually no development in educational systems that has encompassed the task of producing a performance-based college campus. In order to accomplish the necessary goal of developing subsystems which together constitute a performance-based system, it is necessary that…

Highlights the development of a data management system to facilitate service delivery by the career planning and placement department at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. Recounts the development of the system, providing the context for data management and describing the issues associated with building and implementing a data model, and the…

Describes, for the student affairs officer, the importance of evaluating the context within which university-related decisions are made before choosing any proposed management techniques. (Author)

The Department of Education has begun a project to redesign the information systems used to deliver student financial aid funds to students, postsecondary institutions, lenders, and state guarantee agencies. The implications of this strategy are considered. (MLW)

Discusses the general findings of the Carnegie Commission Report on major educational issues of the last decade, and the HEW Report (by Paul Newman) on funding for postsecondary education as they apply to higher education for business. The concept of systems accountability, and suggested methods for dealing with it and the changing educational…

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) believes that colleges and universities should play a central role in bringing the march to education reform to a successful conclusion. In this position paper, the Federation outlines a program to tackle the issues of standards, teaching, and accountability in education. For school reform to work, higher…

A model for implementing a Management by Objectives (MBO) system in the academic environment is presented and potential problems are explored. Some of the pitfalls discussed include: organizational climate, clarity of objectives, assumption that MBO concepts are readily understood, instant success syndrome, and economic reward myopia. (JMD)

Information systems are becoming more than computer systems, with new equipment and techniques combining with data processing to form a new field called information technology. The emerging discipline of systems engineering is discussed along with nine systems engineering techniques. An organization chart of an information services department is…

Describes a system at Florida State for reporting faculty effort, which fulfills and reconciles highly sensitive and mutually opposed federal and state regulations for the use of faculty resources, while meeting deadlines and maintaining accuracy. Highlights problem areas and solutions. (MLW)

Assessments should improve performance by providing usable feedback, and should not merely audit it. Problems with educational accountability policies stem from a flawed view of student assessment. Intellectual excellence cannot be obtained via one-time mandated tests composed of proxies for real challenges. Common standards should be developed…

What has been learned from the study of relationships between abilities and outcomes learned in college and those abilities as they are performed at work is summarized to infer principles that should inform a national system to assess the higher order thinking and communications skills of college graduates in support of the National Education Goal…

The way that the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) should conduct its quality assurance function of monitoring a processing contractor is described. For the following quality assurance procedures, information is provided on the goal of the procedure, activities to be measured, measures, and the role of…

Lessons from the 18-year institutional experience of Alverno College in Milwaukee (Wisconsin) with assessment for the improvement and verification of student learning are summarized. Principles are described that should inform a national assessment system with the dual purposes of improvement and accountability by incorporating the following key…