This framework was developed to to support universities in England to identify courses where value or quality might be a problem and act on it. It aims to: (1) address concerns about low-value courses; (2) build public and government confidence in the quality and value of courses; and (3) show Universities UK's commitment to being consistent and…

This article provides a history of the two large-scale assessment consortia that were funded in 2010 as part of the Race to the Top Competition, the Partnership for the Assessment of Readiness for College and Career (PARCC), and the Smarter-Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC). I compare the goals the consortia were funded to meet between 2011…

This study addressed the impact of VAM, concerns with VAM data, uses and interventions educational leaders provided teachers, and components perceived as necessary for VAM effectiveness as an evaluation tool. The demographics used for this study were position, school size, and experience. Due to the documented need for educational accountability…

This brief and accompanying Funder's Sustainability Assessment Tool is intended to help foundation leaders address the challenges of sustainability. The brief begins with a framework for thinking about sustainability, introduces an assessment tool funders can use in a variety of ways to support sustainability in their grantmaking, and concludes…

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,…

The contemporary context and some recent trends affecting college program reviews or evaluations, current options in purposes and practices, and impacts on programs and institutions are discussed. It is recommended that the process be viewed as a contribution to the general knowledge base for campus constituencies rather than as "right answers"…

Provides models helpful to policymakers at state and institutional levels involved in academic program review and discontinuation, outlines levels of policy decisions for program discontinuation, and examines models that may be effective at each level. Concludes with program discontinuation-related recommendations. (Author/MSE)

This paper presents the findings of a qualitative followup survey of a sample of programs listed in the 1986 "Directory of Evaluation Training Programs." Four programs listed in the directory are no longer considered evaluation training, and five, originally similar, are still going strong. A sampling strategy was used to compare the discontinued…

In fiscal year 1984, the Illinois Community College Board initiated a statewide program review and evaluation process, through which each of the Illinois public community colleges has implemented a review process to evaluate both instructional programs and student/academic support services. Each college designed a program review process to serve…

This chapter describes the history and demise of the service-learning component of a teacher education program. Beginning in 1968, service learning was a self-directed, community-based program within the student-teaching practicum at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario. Students were responsible for matching their learning needs with placement…

Program and Service Review (PSR) at Pima Community College in Arizona is a mechanism to provide continuous comprehensive evaluation and improvement of instructional programs and those support functions that directly serve students. The PSR's original statement of philosophy stresses the use of qualitative and quantitative measures to identify how…

Two decades following the publication of David G. Brown's "Criteria for Pruning Programs," (which recognized that traditional financial support to higher education was decreasing and proposed 10 guidelines for evaluating existing programs) a study was developed to determine what criteria are actually being used by comprehensive…

Program evaluation at Waukesha County Technical Institute consists of two phases: a review of student enrollment, job placement, and program costs, which occurs every two years; and a comprehensive review of program content, student job performance, and instructional effectiveness, which occurs every five years. A schedule for conducting program…

This report examines the Perkins Student Loan Program, and in particular, the weaknesses in the Department of Education's policies, procedures, and practices for recovering Perkins loan fund assets from schools that go out of business. The report reveals that when schools in the Perkins Student Loan Program close, the Department of Education…

The Massachusetts Workplace Education Initiative (MWEI) was begun in 1985 as an inter-agency effort to bring adult basic education and English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) instruction directly into workplaces throughout the state. The impetus for the program was a concern for large numbers of workers who did not have the skills necessary to compete…