Institutional, program, and student evaluation should focus on increasing the effectiveness of academic programs and improving student learning and performance. All higher education regional accrediting associations have requested more emphasis on assessment. The paper examines accreditation, approaches to assessment, and use of the Role…

Describes Louisiana's "accreditation as incentive" program and Tennessee's program of Performance Funding. Discusses voices of dissent to these programs. Concludes that these two programs are not used as an arbitrary or capricious club but rather as an inducement to maintain program quality in the face of higher education budget cuts.…

Reports on a study to determine whether there were particular recommendation categories that appeared in the North Central Association Commission on Schools' visiting team reports. Categories with most recommendations in all three states studied were related to facilities, staffing, curriculum development, equipment, and curriculum articulation.…

Summarizes literature on early childhood (EC) program evaluation, presents an overview of the national standards addressing quality in EC programs, and presents the results of a survey of the evaluation practices of 18 model EC programs. Found that the programs' evaluation procedures were varied, well-developed, open-ended, and process-orientated.…

A discussion of institutional and program evaluation in higher education focuses on the need for congruence between the purposes of the assessment and the procedures used to accomplish it. The factors relating to success in evaluation are examined, with special attention given to those that promote improvement. (Author/MSE)

Standard reading test scores were gathered from 2,500 British students at ages 6 and 8. School and pupil variables sieved with multilevel modeling were used to develop a measure of school effectiveness that ranked schools substantially differently than the raw scores. The measure may be a fairer comparison of school effectiveness. (SK)

Strategies and techniques used in evaluation of British higher education consortia are described, focusing on constraints, purposes, and methods used. The context within which the evaluation takes place is seen as a strong influence on purpose and methods. Similarities and differences in evaluation of individual institutions and consortia are…

Describes the implementation and development of a comprehensive Institutional Effectiveness process at El Paso Community College. Discusses both the four-step process (evaluation, planning, resource allocation, and implementation) as well as unit reviews, which analyze quality indicators. Contains two data tables and five figures. (JDI)

Presents the latest evolution of the accountability movement in higher education to be that of institutional effectiveness assessment. Outlines a model of key factors relating to institutional effectiveness planning and discusses the basic decisions involved in implementation. (30 citations.) (VWC)

An Asian magazine that has ranked 79 Asian universities since 1997 finds some institutions refusing to participate in the survey. Many fault the study's methodology, arguing that institutional qualities are not easily quantified, especially in such a geographically large and diverse region. This year's expanded questionnaire is not seen as…

This article describes the Council of Schools for the Blind Learning Outcomes Project, which is developing a data collection infrastructure that will create relevant information based on current knowledge-management principles. The results of the first year of data collection are presented to illustrate the process. (Contains references.)…

Ohio University's experience with assessment has had two phases: the first was devoted to providing university-wide assessment information to faculty and staff; the second to supporting individual academic units' needs for assessment information. While assessment is a tool used by the university to refocus its publicly perceived primary mission of…

The Institutional Effectiveness Assessment Guide was completed by 80 students, 36 administrators, 87 instructors, and 61 advisory committee members from 9 high schools, technical institutions, vocational centers, and community colleges with exemplary vocational programs. The instrument was deemed an effective quantitative method for assessing…

A study concerning performance indicators in five New Zealand higher education institutions had staff in administration, libraries, and an academic department identify appropriate measures of performance for mechanistic activities. For some activities, particularly at senior levels, mechanistic measures are found inappropriate and impractical;…

The final paper in this theme issue summarizes concerns related to establishing a national quality assurance system for institutions of higher education in South Africa. Proposes a three-phase approach to establishing a national quality assurance system to include: (1) evaluation of existing institutional self-evaluation systems; (2) establishment…