It is nearly impossible today to discuss education without considering testing and evaluation. In the opening article of this volume, professors Baird, Andrich, Hopfenbeck, and Stobart (2017) lay out the challenge of putting learning and teaching first, tracing the development of the science of educational assessment and raising the question…

The distinction between external assessment and internal assessment underpins a major reform to vocational qualifications underway in England. To be approved by the Department for Education, vocational qualifications must now include a minimum proportion of external assessment, regardless of subject. This paper discusses the nature and…

In the era of globalization, accountability, and benchmarking, university rankings have achieved a kind of iconic status. The major ones--the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU, or the "Shanghai rankings"), the QS (Quacquarelli Symonds Limited) World University Rankings, and the "Times Higher Education" World…

Libraries are under pressure to prove their worth and may not have achieved this fully successfully. There is a resultant growing requirement for value and impact measurement in academic and research libraries. This essay reviews the natural history of library performance measurement and suggests that proof of worth will be measured by the…

Government supervision over the quality of higher education by means of evaluations, examinations and verifications, or accreditations is a common international practice in terms of monitoring and controlling the quality of higher education. Many countries stipulate by law that institutions of higher education must submit to evaluation by the…

Personally, the authors have seen the evolution of teacher education for over 30 years. From "diagnostic/prescriptive teaching" through "reflective practice," the quality of the programs and students has improved greatly. Turning that subjective appraisal into a quantifiable evaluation is a tricky enterprise in education. However, the demand for…

On the surface, it would appear that procedures for administrative reviews and approvals ("xingzheng shenpi") (for institutions of higher education) have decreased today, but what has followed is an increase in administrative evaluations ("xingzheng pinggu") and administrative examinations ("xingzheng shencha"), and…

When John B. Simpson, president of the State University of New York (SUNY) at Buffalo, compares the campus over which he presides to its public-university peers, the contrast can be unflattering. Buildings and laboratories need upgrading. Richer, more prestigious institutions have a leg up in attracting renowned scholars and big-ticket federal…

In the author's position as director of institutional effectiveness and currently as a department assessment chair, he relates that he has found it useful to use an analogy between flossing one's teeth and instituting assessment. There are more similarities between flossing and assessment than one might imagine. In this article, the author…

Accrediting agencies, legislators, pundits, and even higher educational professionals have become enamored with applying the language of continuous improvement to learning outcomes. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges specifically uses the term "continuing improvement" in Core Standard 2.5, one of its…

Begun in 2003, the National Undergraduate Teaching and Learning Evaluation, conducted in regular universities every five years, has surveyed the significance of evaluation and index scheme improvement at 171 higher education institutions. The launch in January 2007 of the national project of Undergraduate Teaching Quality and Teaching Reform in…

It is unlikely that Stoesz and Karger will be widely commended for the critique of social work accreditation. Social work academics do not usually handle criticism with equanimity. In some respects, their case is overstated. The problems associated with social work accreditation are not caused by the low publication productivity of social work…

Thanks to China's reform and opening to the world over the last three decades, the conventional normal education system, which is characterized by independent orientation, is now being challenged by a comprehensive and multi-faceted modern teacher education system that has taken shape. It is high time that we attached great significance to the…

The authors respond to the invited commentary addressing their paper "Reinventing Social Work Accreditation" published earlier in this issue. Many of the comments provided were sensible and sober appraisals of the critical state of social work education and of the profession, largely congruent with the authors' analysis. They judge the response…

Many of the criticisms of Stoesz and Karger contained within their article titled "Reinventing Social Work Education" and focused against the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) are misdirected. The CSWE accreditation mandate does not extend to the publishing records (or lack thereof) of social work faculty or deans, to the GRE scores of…