This yearbook contains the addresses presented at the fourth Annual Southwest Reading Conference for Colleges and Universities. In addition short reports of the special sections and additional materials are included. Part 1 contains addresses which consider the following: standardized reading tests, problems in evaluating college reading programs,…

A national survey of state higher education executive officers investigated the type, impetus, and extent of statewide program review, including state office involvement, use of outside consultants, program decision criteria, problems and benefits, and criteria for developing and reviewing the review process itself. (MSE)

State higher education executive officers were surveyed to learn the status, nature, policies and procedures of undergraduate program review. States see reviews as improving cooperation between officials at state and institutional levels. At the institutional level, many educators regard state reviews as necessary evils. (MLW)

Describes the program of the Academic Skills Center at San Diego State University, which is designed to decrease the attrition rate among severely underprepared students by integrating general education courses with courses in academic reading and writing. (FL)

Reveals the presence of reading improvement programs in all types of colleges in the American southeast, a continuing emphasis on diagnosis and prescription, and consensus on what professional training has been helpful. (FL)

The guidelines are meant to help two-year institutions provide physics students with the best possible education in the fundamental areas of physics and its relation to other disciplines and to society. General curricular guidelines, rather than specific curricular content, are defined. Implementing these guidelines can help ensure that the…

The benefits based management (BBM) approach to outdoor recreation programming is a technique focused on outcomes and benefits derived from participating in outdoor recreation activities. This approach can be used to establish the significance of college outdoor programs on campus. The four premises of BBM are the articulation of outcome-oriented…

For the past 20 years, the University of Hawaii Community Colleges have had a formal process for the review of educational programs, requiring that each program undergo a systematic review at least once every 5 years. The result tended to be a lengthy document that chronicled the history of the previous 5 years and was far more descriptive than…

This review of architecture and architecture-related programs in the State University System of Florida consists of summaries of individual university consultant reports for three institutions visited, overviews based on status reports for programs not visited, and consultant recommendations regarding system-wide issues. Site visits took place at…

This report presents the findings of a visiting team charged with assessing Northeast Missouri State University's progress in 5 years toward goals from a new institutional mission and planning document. In particular the report endorses the 49 undergraduate programs and 9 graduate programs offered at NMSU each of which successfully attained the…

An approach to integrating formative evaluation into externally-mandated program reviews in higher education is suggested. Externally-mandated reviews are generally concerned with the summative evaluation of academic programs. The first step is to classify the mandated program review criteria using a two-dimensional model. This model is based on a…

In response to a mutual need for better communication between the Pennsylvania Department of Education's Bureau of Vocational and Adult Education (BVAE) and four universities in Pennsylvania operating vocational education professional personnel development centers, an accountability system was designed through a cooperative effort with center…

A study was conducted using quality control and quality assurance models to examine student outcomes. The purpose was to investigate current quality control and quality assurance practices in six colleges, to evaluate the relationship between quantitative effectiveness measures and qualitative outcomes measure and to assess the readiness of each…

Academic program approval and review in postsecondary institutions and in state systems are discussed, based on a 1979 survey of postsecondary institutions. Based on responses from 68 percent of 1,082 institutions, it was found that formal program-approval procedures are increasingly utilized (in their order of frequency) in independent four-year…

As part of the final report of the Arizona Board of Regents' Task Force on Excellence, Efficiency and Competitiveness, the Council of Presidents discusses academic degree program duplication. Current board policies are explained in regard to mission and scope statements (each university shall have a distinctive mission and scope, and no university…