This paper critiques current models for evaluation of mental health services provided to children and adolescents with emotional disturbances and offers an alternative model. The most popular model, Donabedian's tripartite model, is described. This model separately evaluates three domains: (1) structure (characteristics of the care providers,…

A theory of program quality based on a new definition of quality is offered. Constructed on the basis of interviews with nearly 800 stakeholders in master's-level education, the engagement theory" advances a conceptual framework and a set of criteria, with indicators, for assessing graduate and professional program quality. (Author/MSE)

System-wide assessment in higher education can be influenced by political issues, which are in turn preoccupied with market forces and technological development. This generates a climate inimical to ethical quality and conflicts with academic work. If academic work is to make its best contribution to society, administration must move beyond…

Explores the importance of leadership, vision, purpose, organizational culture, motivation, and change as aspects of organizational life that Total Quality Management (TQM) does not adequately address. Offers the concept of learning organizations as a preferable approach, arguing that this method is a needed element in the leadership and…

The quality of early childhood programs can be assessed from the top down, through the viewpoint of an adult observer, or the bottom up, through the viewpoint of a child in the program. Questions that can be asked from each perspective are listed. (LB)

The Quality Circle Model of Planning is presented as a program evaluation approach for schools serving students with blindness. The model helps administrators solve problems using creative, innovative approaches; identifies human and monetary resources for successful implementation of the plan; and provides a framework for evaluating the plan's…

Recent policies on quality in British teacher education and different approaches to measuring quality are discussed. It is proposed that the much-debated issue of measurement of educational quality is entwined with certain organizational myths in higher education institutions, but that attempts to disentangle them would be less useful than…

Responds to the debate on how evaluation processes can reward individual differences, and at the same time ensure quality-control across the board. A review is provided of types of evaluation and suggestions are offered for the development of successful, institutionally appropriate evaluation plans. (Author/VWL)

A study on the use of performance indicators within a quality assurance system in higher education in the Netherlands is reported. The case study of seven departments of economics shows the attention paid to structural aspects of the curriculum instead of the declared object of the program evaluation. (SLD)

Although higher education in Scotland is part of the United Kingdom system, it has operated separately, with a distinctive focus on the assessment of quality in each academic subject. Internal and external quality assessment and assurance processes are described, and the lessons learned are explored briefly. (MSE)

Raises concerns about collaborative contractual arrangements that provide educational services to international students within British institutions of higher education. Reports that evaluation of a course for international students designed and delivered with a private partner found the course commercially successful but educationally and…

The purpose of this study was to demonstrate the development of safety, permanency, and child well-being indicators by using administrative data sets as well as by using these indicators as tools for evaluating Florida's Community-Based Care (CBC) initiative. Longitudinal data from 37 counties including 4 counties that implemented community-based…

This paper provides a description and documentation of two significant events in the history of our field: (1) the development of our field and the doctoral program review process and outcome by the American Academy of Kinesiology and Physical Education; and (2) the process by which the Academy successfully had "kinesiology" included as a…

This deliverable identifies key approaches for quality management in peer production by benchmarking peer production practices and processes in other areas. (Contains 29 footnotes, 13 figures and 2 tables.)[This report has been authored with contributions of: Kaisa Honkonen-Ratinen, Matti Auvinen, David Riley, Jose Pinzon, Thomas Fischer, Thomas…

When researchers evaluate social skills programs, they essentially are measuring progress towards a goal. How they measure this progress hinges on the precision of the goal statements, the identification of valid and realistic process and outcome indicators, and the selection of appropriate data and methods for collection. This paper outlines the…