Explains the institutional research process used by the Oregon University System to identify peer comparators for the state's seven diverse public universities. The process combined detailed statistical information with a sensitivity to the political dynamics and judgments of campus presidents and staff. Identifies 10 conditions that contribute to…

While the assessment movement has spanned more than two decades, there is great variation in its degree of implementation among community colleges throughout the country. Building on literature in the field, this chapter discusses and gives examples of concepts and major areas involved in the assessment of student learning at the institutional…

An increasing number of studies are concerned with the international comparison of the results that different education systems achieve. For example, TIMSS, PIRLS and PISA publish the results from different countries in mathematics, science and literacy. The European Commission has also published indicators and benchmarks relating to the quality…

This paper reports the evaluation carried out on the Music Teacher Education programme at the University of Granada. The first section deals with the European, national and university framework in which that evaluation was done. The four-stage methodology for collecting data, raising interpretations, external evaluation, and final report…

There are many studies about the experiences of higher education students, but few analyze their representations of the governance and the management of their institutions. Our study will describe, analyze and compare students' representations of institutional evaluation at three institutions in Portugal and Brazil. Our results, based on an open…

Previous research has concluded that an institution's ranking in the annual "U.S. News and World Report" "Best Colleges" issue impacts admission outcomes and pricing decisions at schools in the Consortium for Financing Higher Education. This article expands on the previous work by analyzing the effects of the "U.S. News and World Report" rankings…

Amid growing criticism of public universities, there is little discussion of what appropriate institutional evaluation would entail. Six-year graduation rates are commonly used, and public bachelors granting institutions have lower rates than private institutions, but with the growth in non-traditional college attendance, these can be misleading.…

Purpose: The paper aims to investigate the role of educational development centres, and their potential for playing a broader and more central role in quality and organisational development. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on the results of three external evaluations of educational development centres in Denmark and Norway,…

This article relates the philosophical and conceptual study of educational institutions with educational policy. I argue that both the descriptive and prescriptive answer to "what a school is" should focus on the school that is important, which is the central case. This central case of a school should embody an ethos of openness towards the basic…

Goffin discusses the new commission and its tasks and how the new standards and criteria will differ from the current ones. She requests that members contribute their input on this important aspect of the NAEYC accreditation transition.

Inspection and performance data show that the schools identified as least effective in England (in special measures) are more likely to sustain the improvement they make after inspection than those that are relatively more effective, although still causing concern (identified as having serious weaknesses). We compare the progress of these two…

The emergence and development of the nonstate sector of higher education in Russia was not an easy process: the institutions were under the constant scrutiny of the legislative and executive branches. Due to the "politically even-handed" resolutions that the Ministry and the Committee of the Russian Federation Council of Federation…

Program reviews became widely used as quality assurance activities in the United States beginning in the 1970s. Since then, they have evolved as an essential component in demonstrating institutional effectiveness to accrediting bodies. The paper discusses various approaches to reviews with a focus on a recently reengineered institutional program…

This article considers some patterns of ranking higher education institutions which are used in the Russian Federation to reveal strengths and weaknesses in meeting the national individual, societal and state-related needs, as well as those of the international academic community concerning relevant information on Russian higher education…

Purpose: This paper is the second part of a comprehensive report about a research study that aims to assess the relationship between the university experience and student outcomes as a means of determining a university's success in meeting its educational goals. Design/methodology/approach: While Part I has described the process of how data were…