An overview of assessment practices in the 107 California community colleges (CCCs) in 71 community college districts is presented. Nearly 1.4 million students are now enrolled in CCCs, and 40,000 full- and part-time faculty work in CCCs. The primary mission of CCCs is the provision of rigorous, high-quality lower division instruction for students…

During May of 1985, an external audit team was engaged by the Lorain (Ohio) City Schools to assess implementation of the seven correlates of an effective school. The correlates, developed by the Ohio State Department of Education, included: (1) a sense of mission; (2) strong building leadership; (3) high expectations for all students and staff;…

South Carolina's School Incentive Reward Program Program (SIRP) based on year-to-year gains in reading and mathematics achievement, which seemed to have face validity, was evaluated, particularly its use of the relative gains of students in only the highest grade in the school as the basis for the awards. When this requirement was relaxed so that…

This manual assists South Carolina service providers in their efforts to comply with components of Public Law 94-142, Education of All Handicapped Children Act, in order to assure that handicapped children receive an appropriate education. The manual is designed as an evaluation tool for school districts to record areas of compliance and to…

The purpose of Lake Forest College's 1986 self-study was to provide the North Central Association's Commission on Institutions of Higher Education Evaluation Team with materials needed for reaccreditation; to evaluate Lake Forest's efforts to fulfill the purposes and meet the goals established in the new mission statement; and to evaluate the…

Findings from a study of the viability of a sample of 51 institutions that received substantial federal funding are summarized. The institutions received funding through Title III of the Higher Education Act during the 1981-1982 academic year and the 5 prior academic years. Study objectives included the following: to determine general factors…

Changes at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK), begun when the Tennessee Higher Education Commission (THEC) initiated a funding mechanism designed to promote assessment and improvement of quality, are chronicled. Implications for program evaluation, planning, and resource allocation in other state colleges and universities are also…

The Situational Factors Checklist was developed to describe variables which influence changes within a school and was used in two different school settings. In one application, it was used as a part of a case study method to study implementation of a microcomputer project, increasing faculty computer literacy, at different community colleges. The…

Activities and findings of the Statistical Analysis Group in Education (SAGE), which sought (1) to develop and validate financial and nonfinancial indicators of college or university viability and (2) to measure institutional viability of types of colleges related to federal policy goals for higher education. Development of the longitudinal file…

The texts of three conference papers are presented in this volume. The papers are: Student-Oriented Management: A Proposal for Change (Alexander W. Astin); Goals, Outcomes, and Academic Evaluation (Howard R. Bowen); and A Summary of the 1978 COPA Summer Conference (Charles M. Chambers). The first addresses the definition of quality in…

Three criteria used to differentiate public and private colleges/universities are considered, and it is suggested that these variables of financial source, control, and mission are not adequate distinctions. Although public universities receive greater shares of their income from the government than do private ones, there are difficulties in…

In order to determine appropriate training activities for a management development program at Bucks County Community College (BCCC), 64 administrators were asked to assess the current operation of the college and to project a goal towards which they would like to work. The questionnaire, developed by Rensis Likert, was comprised of 32 statements…

In order to provide the information needed for long-range planning, Amarillo College (AC), Texas, conducted a survey of eight selected community groups during Fall 1979 to determine the socioeconomic characteristics of area citizens, their perceptions of AC, and their interest in obtaining further education. Survey respondents included 227 area…

In the prevailing atmosphere of concern for basic skills development, Houston Community College System (HCCS) faculty and administration perceived the need for a self-evaluation of HCCS's developmental studies programs. The purposes of the resulting study are: (1) to evaluate the effectiveness of the institution's developmental studies programs by…

The paper attempts to synthesise the features of the model for quality management in education based on the approaches spelt out in four well-articulated methodologies for the practice of quality in higher education. Each methodology contributes to different views of education from the learners' and the institution's perspectives, providing…