Key knowledge management attributes of the world's most prestigious Anglo-American universities are surprisingly under-reported especially by best ranked USA institutions. This leads to calls for more transparency.

Over the past two decades there have been growing public dialogues around the concern that institutions of higher education and the faculty, staff and students within them, are disengaged--separated and unconcerned with issues beyond their immediate environments, both physical and social. A concomitant discourse has emerged in higher education and…

Government supervision over the quality of higher education by means of evaluations, examinations and verifications, or accreditations is a common international practice in terms of monitoring and controlling the quality of higher education. Many countries stipulate by law that institutions of higher education must submit to evaluation by the…

"Student swirl," or the inconsistent flow in and out of college coursework from term-to-term, institution-to-institution, reflects the non-traditional nature of many community college students. Swirl can be triggered by such stressors as: balancing work, school, and family obligations; financial challenges; and health problems. In turn,…

No Child left Behind, The ESEA Flexibility Program, and the Race to the Top contest have spurred a multitude of School Improvement programs, businesses, initiatives and more. The current emphasis on standardized testing, data gathering and analysis, and measuring effective schooling has caused many education agencies, state and local, to seek…

This study investigates inter-school variations in several dimensions of opportunity to learn as well as examines the extent to which these measures significantly affect students' performance on grade 7 literacy and numeracy exams. After situating the study within the global discourse emphasizing the importance of providing access to quality…

Given the rapid growth of sustainability initiatives at institutions of higher education in the United States, measuring and assessing progress toward sustainability goals has become increasingly important. While many institutions have undertaken campus-wide assessments of their progress toward sustainability, and while a variety of sustainability…

Plans by the National Council on Teacher Quality to rate all teacher preparation programs in the country and publish the results in "U.S. News & World Report" have been met with concern and skepticism, but also gained some converts. Proponents say the effort can only help teachers' colleges improve, while detractors say the methods and research…

Personally, the authors have seen the evolution of teacher education for over 30 years. From "diagnostic/prescriptive teaching" through "reflective practice," the quality of the programs and students has improved greatly. Turning that subjective appraisal into a quantifiable evaluation is a tricky enterprise in education. However, the demand for…

To ensure optimal standards for AAFCS program accreditation, the Council for Accreditation (CFA) conducted a review and revision of the "2001 AAFCS Standards for Accreditation." The CFA took a three-pronged approach including (a) a review of academic accreditations that had relationships to the FCS disciplines, (b) concept, content, and process…

This issue of "Assessment Update" presents the following articles: (1) Closing the Loop: How an Assessment Project Paved the Way for GE Reform (Joan Hawthorne and Anne Kelsch); (2) Value-Added? Committing to Quality: Guidelines for Assessment and Accountability in Higher Education (David C. Paris); (3) Creating a Cadre of Assessment…

The Obama administration's recurring policy emphasis on high-performing charter schools begs the obvious question: how do you identify a high-performing charter school? That is a crucially important policy question because any evaluation strategy that incorrectly identifies charter school performance could have negative effects on the economically…

The paper develops a new model of the essential factors required to be a top business school in the world for the benefit of schools recognized by the Higher Education Commission (HEC) in Pakistan. Globally, top business schools are those that excel in research, attract strong faculty, and successfully foster student development. The present…

This study explored the relationship between the degree to which top administrators of four-year colleges and universities that have been effective in implementing and sustaining assessment view the use of assessment and seven components of institutional sensemaking at their institutions. The underlying premise is that outcomes assessment…

Tests of college learning are often administered to obtain value-added scores indicating whether score gains are below, near, or above typical performance for students of given entering academic ability. This study compares the qualities of value-added scores generated by the original Collegiate Learning Assessment value-added approach and a new…