The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) for quality programs has seven categories against which organizations are evaluated (leadership, information and analysis, strategic/operational quality planning, human resources, process management, quality/performance results, customer/student satisfaction). A preliminary quality-assessment…

Summarizes what High/Scope discovered to be the critical characteristics of a comprehensive and valid measure of early childhood program quality. Provides suggestions for how the tool can be used, and highlights with examples. Asserts that the guidelines effectively assess efforts of child development, staff development, and soundness of…

Describes as example a parents' center in London to examine impact of evaluation exercises on people and services being evaluated. Questions whether evaluators are measuring the right things, whether evidence is valid, and what effects an evaluation may have on services. Identifies features of research and evaluation that are most likely to…

Recently, a medium-sized public university's General Education Council implemented a faculty-driven course-embedded assessment process that allows for flexibility in teaching style and course content but still measures quality of student performance throughout the program. Information on implementation, reporting processes, data analyses, and how…

Elementary- and secondary-school teachers in the United States traditionally have been compensated according to salary schedules based solely on experience and education. Concerned that this system makes it difficult to retain talented teachers and provides few incentives for them to work to raise student achievement while in the classroom, many…

The Office of Management and Budget has recommended the termination of numerous federal programs, citing a lack of program results as the primary reason for this decision. In response to this recommendation, several federal agencies have turned to logic modeling to demonstrate that programs are on the path to results accountability. However,…

This article describes a project designed to ensure that class participation in a large introductory commercial law course is assessed fairly and reliably. The subjectivity often associated with this type of assessment is minimized by involving students in the specification of clear criteria and the assessment process as they were asked to assess…

The pressure on academic institutions to develop sustainable programs is felt both internally and externally. Owing to shrinking operating budgets, universities will only support programs that relate directly to their mission and that are financially viable. External expectations come from funding agencies that typically require institutions to be…

It is argued that the auditing demands of quality assurance have encouraged a greater proceduralisation of university coursework assessment. Interviews with academics from a cross-section of Psychology departments illustrated how assessment had acquired the tightly scripted character of an organisational process. Yet undergraduate focus group…

Objective: To survey chief residents' opinion about various aspects of psychotherapy competency determination. Methods: Chief residents of various psychiatry residency programs were surveyed. Results: One hundred two chief residents were surveyed. Seventy two (70.58%) completed the survey. Eighty four percent of the respondents reported that they…

This study investigates what teachers learn from a graduate-level course that prepares them to pursue an advanced form of professional teaching certification based on the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). The study draws from Habermas's (1972, 1974) three knowledge constitutive interests--the technical, the practical, and…

Organizations value the business impact and benefits that accompany e-learning, such as workforce effectiveness, reduced training costs, and improved workforce retention (Taylor, 2001). However, although justifying the value of evaluation is clear, "e-learning evaluations often do not receive the priority that they deserve" (Tanquist, 2000, p. 1).…

To support K-12 students with significant disabilities and get an accurate picture of their skills and knowledge, schools need to implement effective alternate assessment based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS). This is the guidebook every team should have--not only to develop successful AA-AAS linked with grade-level content standards,…

The "Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Education Act of 1998" requires that the Secretary provide the appropriate committees of Congress copies of annual reports received by the department from each eligible agency that receives funds under the Act. Congress has made "accountability for results" a central focus of the…

This report discusses the use of performance indicators (PIs) in higher education, focusing on definitions, frameworks, examples, and implications for universities. It notes that demands for accountability have led to intense interest in university performance measures, and that early indicators simply described the university or the system and…