The New Zealand early childhood center charter is a contract between the Ministry of Education and an individual center. The charter was introduced with the 1989 publication of the "Early Childhood Management Handbook." It was thought to be the key to improving quality in services, since it outlined official center policies,…

It is commonly believed that the quality of original cataloging on OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) and RLIN (Research Libraries Information Network) significantly differs. Past stereotypes reflected the fact that OCLC traditionally emphasized increasing the size of the database, while RLIN ascribed top priority to cataloging quality. The…

The Further Education Unit's (FEU's) current quality projects in Great Britain include Trialling TQM [total quality management], Maintaining Quality During Curriculum Change, and value-added work. The FEU value-added project consisted of a survey of 125 technical colleges to discover the extent of value-added activity and a short-term working…

This paper discusses the validity of licensure examination results as an indicator of the performance of higher educational institutions. Licensure examination scores are available to departments for a variety of disciplines and analysis is best performed within the departments. The quality of feedback may dictate the usefulness of results. Using…

To examine the way college and university officials monitor quality, researchers conducted an open-ended telephone survey of trios of presidents, CAOs, and trustee chairs in the spring of 1989. These people were asked to discuss how well they thought their institutions were doing and how they knew so. Their responses reflected the question of in…

The Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP), as a corporate affiliate of the American Association for Counseling and Development, is the accrediting agency for the world's largest association for counseling. CACREP has been in consultation with the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation (COPA) staff…

In discussing quality indicators of teacher education programs, three components of teacher education are addressed: the program's content, the faculty, and products of inquiry. Three different rationales are presented for selecting and ordering content for teacher education curricula. These rationales, phrased as "decision-rules" are: in order to…

Error profiles for the Fall Enrollment Survey of the Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS) were developed as part of an assessment of the quality of survey data. Three statistics were of particular interest: the count of full-time equivalent students, the breakdown by race/ethnicity, and the count of unclassified students. Attention…

Information on statistical detection of two different kinds of unethical activity associated with standardized testing is presented. The first is advance presentation of specific test items or excessive coaching using items very similar to those on a test. Cluster analysis is recommended for detection of aberrant vectors of percentages correct on…

This report addresses issues related to the extent and nature of misreporting of income and family size on applications for government-sponsored school meal benefits. Findings are reported from 741 in-home audits conducted with school meal program participants in nine school food authorities. In-home audits, which consisted of personal interviews…

Presented in this report are selected findings of the Income Verification Pilot Project (IVPP), an investigation examining misreporting of applicant income and family size on applications for government-sponsored school meal benefits. As reported here, Phase II of the project provided for a comprehensive assessment of specific quality assurance…

Telecourses differ in fundamental ways from regular college courses; i.e., faculty are not the only ones involved in telecourse design and production; colleges are not the sole funding agencies for their production; and telecourses are designed to be marketed, rather than to be offered by a single institution. These differences mean that…

The development, formative evaluation, and potential uses of the "Sixteen Quality Indicators" (16 QI) rating scale are described. The scale was developed as a systematic way to rate the quality of Skill Qualifications Tests (SQTs) in the United States Army. An SQT measures a soldier's knowledge of a military occupational specialty. It is…

This report evaluates the types of data gathered about nursing homes during a survey process by the State of Illinois through its Inspection of Care Review and Quality Incentive Program (QUIP) assessments. The data are compared to other State systems/demonstrations in an effort to choose those indicators which best measure the quality of care in…

Information was gathered from the central office, elementary, and junior and senior high school administrators of the Saginaw (Michigan) Public Schools regarding the quality control operation in the schools. All administrators were polled to determine an actual level of need based on the difference between what "is" and "what should…