The debate over quality assurance in higher education is extended to quality control in work experience programs, particularly regarding program accreditation. The importance of precision in specifying anticipated learning outcomes, which is characteristic in evaluation of work-based programs, is seen as useful in managing the quality of…

Examines eight reasons why Total Quality Management cannot succeed in education and shows how one Florida elementary school surmounted these obstacles and implemented Deming's quality principles. Principal Nancy Duden overcame resistance to change, leadership misconceptions, reliance on external motivators (promotions and grades), increased…

Discusses issues involved in creating educational hyperdocuments at the University of Kent (England) and examines whether the costs are justified by the benefits. Concludes that the key to making a cost-effective hyperdocument is to have widespread usage over a long period of time and to ensure portability, maintenance, and quality assurance. (JMV)

Based on effective-schools research and organizational theory, a curriculum-management audit examines school practices and policies for curriculum design and delivery and draws conclusions about curriculum quality control. District performance is measured against five standards: control, direction, connectivity and equity, feedback, and…

This article proposes that the quality review procedures currently favored in Australian higher education, at institutional and national levels, are inappropriate for Australian education's goals, processes, and outcomes. Procedures better suited to higher education's culture are recommended. Guidelines for accomplishing this in an atmosphere of…

Examines the development of quality assurance in higher education delivered through open and distance learning. Highlights include recent publications on quality assurance, factors for change, key terms, debate about organizational mission, management, customers and students, competitive environment, and philosophy of professional- versus…

School managerial control is derived from perceptions of behavioral interactions between teachers and administrators along two dimensions: regular patterns of rules; and discretionary behaviors reflecting the quality of managerial performance. Analyzes interactive effects of these dimensions across four control processes within curriculum and…

This article argues that, in the United Kingdom, the discussion of quality in higher education reflects a conceptual confusion and is generating practical consequences that may be catastrophic for higher education. A distinction is made between two approaches to policy concerning quality, based on selection of appropriate ethical standards. (MSE)

A quality assessment at the University of Jyvaskyla (Finland) started with self-evaluation followed by a foreign visiting group's evaluation. The positive effects of the evaluation were commitment, organizational self-understanding, a new frame of planning activities, future orientation, and a new position in external relations. (Author/JDD)

A 1992 review of National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education standards emphasized the need to address educational technology. New standards were adopted in 1994. The paper discusses revised unit standards, guidelines for addressing technology categories, significance of change in unit standards, using accreditation standards for…

The Maryland Center for Quality and Productivity at the University of Maryland has developed a methodology that enables the management team of an organization to define its critical performance dimensions. A set of metrics is offered to help colleges and universities assess whether quality management is improving their performance. (DB)

The use of taxonomies of types and levels of learning for student assessment in higher education is discussed. Five taxonomies designed for a variety of instructional areas are described. The reasons for their use are examined from four points of view: pedagogical, professional, quality assurance, and management. (MSE)

Discusses methods of textual documentation that can be used for software documentation. Highlights include measurement of text comprehensibility; methods for the measurement of documentation quality, including readability and the Cloze Procedure; tools for the measurement of text readability; and the development of the Reading Measurability…

There is evidence that the traditional methods that nations have been using for quality control in education may no longer be sufficient. This article summarizes different viewpoints from which quality in education and training have been considered. (JOW)

The absence, until very recently, of widespread debate on policy concerning quality assurance in German higher education is attributed to the fact that, historically, German education has been highly standardized and those standards were presumed to persist even with mass higher education. Current expansion and economic crises have stimulated…