AIDE (Assessment of Internal Decision Events) is a strategy for evaluating products at various stages of development. Its four basic functions are: identification and selection of key points for review, preparation for review, and provision of information for decisions. The implications of AIDE for product development are discussed. (DS)

Data gathered from 296 agency accreditation surveys, conducted by the Accreditation Council on Services for People with Developmental Disabilities, were analyzed, focusing on ownership, services provided, size of residential units, critical standards, characteristics of individuals served, and accreditation outcome. Redundancies between private…

The Higher Learning Commission (HLC), a commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), accredits Wyoming's seven community colleges. Institutional accreditation is a voluntary process that serves the critical purposes of quality assurance and institutional and program improvement. Colleges that are accredited by the HLC…

Purpose: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality sponsored a nationwide study to evaluate the federal paid feeding assistant (PFA) regulation that allows nursing homes to hire single-task workers to provide feeding assistance to nursing home residents. Organizers designed the PFA regulation…

Total quality management will not work well in government agencies because of stress on products, not services; on well-defined consumer groups; on inputs/processes, not results; and on preoccupation with quality. An effective revised version emphasizes client feedback, performance monitoring, continuous improvement, and worker participation. (SK)

Curriculum auditing is a quality-control process. If a course is not meeting expectations, is not serving students, or needs adjustment, the Roanoke Valley (Virginia) Governor's School for Science and Technology employs benchmarking to attain data to fix the problem or move in another direction. (MLH)

The success of corporate instructional design projects depends on how well the practitioner performs in the field under specific circumstances. Benchmarking is one of the major business strategies for continuous improvement. A thorough inquiry into how exceptional corporate instructional designers function lends insights into the instructional…

Presents a historical perspective of performance measurement, describing types of performance measures, and examining their use in municipal parks and recreation agencies, noting that more and more parks and recreation agencies are developing performance measurement plans for all divisions and units. The benefits movement (specifically, benefits…

This is a book about quality and how to control quality through deliberate actions on the part of the professionals developing and implementing the instances of instruction available at an organization. Quality control theory favors no particular learning philosophy and is only directed towards aspects of how, what, where and when measurements are…

In Spring 2006,. the NAEP Validity Studies (NVS) Panel was asked by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to undertake a validity study to examine the quality of the NAEP Mathematics Assessments at grades 4 and 8. Specifically, NCES asked the NVS Panel to address five questions: (1) Does the NAEP framework offer reasonable content…

A major purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes toward standards of practice and the nature and scope of standards of practice as they currently exist in governmental agencies, professional associations and licensing agencies, business and industry, health-related organizations, and colleges and universities. A second purpose was to…

Although approximately 24% of children in all forms of child care in the United States receive evening or overnight care, most nighttime child care is unregulated by state licensing standards and faces a number of serious problems. For example, a survey of licensed centers and licensed day care homes offering night care in Seattle, Washington,…

During 2006, High/Scope worked with the Forum to provide training and technical assistance to several state and regional networks which are building quality improvement and accountability systems. In each community, High/Scope staff presented to local decision-makers and provided one- or two-day pilot training workshops for parishioners and…

The report describes the evaluations of the current practices of Educational Technology Services (ETS) at Monroe Community College (New York) by the Customer Service Team. ETS provides all aspects of technology support to the College. The "customers" of ETS include students, faculty and staff. With the goal of developing a Customer…

Data from two surveys of manufacturers (325 of 650 responded) suggest that those with quality improvement programs jointly administered by labor and management achieve significantly greater improvements than those with no programs. Those with programs administered solely by management fared no better than those with no programs. (Author/SK)