The local education authority in Cambridgeshire (England) addressed issues of funding, accountability, and quality in five stages: affirming core values, identifying quality descriptors, developing understanding, establishing a clear funding basis, and analyzing performance factors. Evaluation techniques include validated self-evaluation,…

A research and development approach to performance monitoring in public agencies involves establishing objectives, selecting indicators, establishing criteria for comparison, and using information. Examples from Virginia education agencies indicate that performance monitoring requires commitment, patience, openness to ideas, and risk taking. (SK)

Considers the measurement of institutional effectiveness an opportunity for college renewal, clarification of college mission, improvement of work environments, and enhancement of an institution's reputation. Defines institutional effectiveness and discusses how it can be measured, listing a number of indicators of how well a college is performing…

It is proposed that, although recent higher education policy in Australia has been criticized for trying to make higher education more accountable, its real flaw is that it took too restricted a view of constituencies, objectives, and procedures, focusing on accountability to the government rather than accountability to the public. (MSE)

Attempts to define organizational processes necessary to operate safely technologically complex organizations. Identifies nuclear powered aircraft carriers as examples of potentially hazardous organizations with histories of excellent operations. Discusses how carriers deal with components of risk and antecedents to catastrophe cited by Perrow and…

Teaching to style represents a philosophical change from tradition to a mutual embrace of learning accountability. Control is relinquished in exchange for leadership. Students win by learning to value themselves and others. Teachers win by presiding over classrooms disciplined by mutual respect and enlivened by a celebration of diverse skills and…

If school leaders are to resolve the unique administrative problems that educational reforms, greater parental involvement, new legislation, and a continuously changing society will generate, existing professional development experiences must be improved substantially. School councils will expect administrators to assess complex situations,…

Outcome-based education is rooted in earlier ideas, such as Tyler's objectives, Spady's outcomes, Glaser's criterion-referenced measurement, Bloom's mastery learning, 1970s accountability concerns, and the 1960s competency-based education movement. Minnesota's experience suggests various practical implementation challenges concerned with…

Responses from 33 state education departments to a survey sent to all 50 state education departments about Total Quality Management (TQM) revealed that 22 departments were not currently considering TQM, 11 were considering it, but only 8 submitted designs. Advises school boards of steps to take to bring TQM to their schools. (MLF)

Compared to other subject areas, the arts seem more difficult to classify and evaluate. However, the arts' methods and content place them at the forefront of evaluation techniques that are beginning to permeate academic subject areas. Effective evaluation of arts programs depends not on principals' artistic expertise but on their ability to manage…

The Perkins Act mandated the establishment of standards, assessments, and certification to train the nation's work force. By ascertaining what is expected of their programs and students, marketing educators will be sure that their standards are met and that the future of marketing education reflects today's visions. (Author/JOW)

Recently, the National Center for Educational Leadership surveyed 35 Kentucky superintendents about changing roles since passage of the 1990 Kentucky Education Reform Act. Results showed that superintendents were learning to lead from the background, enhancing all stakeholders' participation, and working hard to manage reform requirements. Many…

Comments on the educational quality indicators projects undertaken by Alberta school districts, noting their dependence on process-product research; inclusion of social and affective aspects of education; use of provincial achievement tests as indicators; and emphases on accountability, teacher collaboration, and professional development. (SV)

Performance funding reemerged in the 1990s as a state budgetary method for complementing or replacing other funding strategies for public colleges to better promote and respond to specific policy concerns. It has the potential to correct some of the apparent flaws in traditional budgeting but is easier to define than to put into operation. (MSE)

Provides background information on the Hudson Institute's "Charter Schools in Action" project that studied 50 charter schools in 10 states. Examines innovative ways charter schools organize and support themselves, and presents five lessons from the charter-school movement. Public schools would benefit by becoming more consumer-oriented,…