In recent years, new economic pressures have been placed on community colleges as a result of increased expectations for accountability on the part of governing bodies and the public. In responding to these pressures, colleges must consider new approaches to management, while the tools and approaches developed in private industry can provide…

The Board on Testing and Assessment of the National Research Council convened a workshop in 1994 to help policymakers and others better understand the complex issues emerging from the standards-based educational reform movement. This bulletin synthesizes the workshop discussions. It is organized around four major themes that emerged from the…

In 1991, the Southeastern Regional Vision for Education (SERVE), a federally funded education laboratory, began a study to identify the barriers to school reform in six southeastern states--Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina. This document presents findings of that study and the second area of study it…

This paper describes an educational innovation that survived only 2 years. The pilot program introduced team teaching, based on a middle-school philosophy, into three high schools in a relatively large midwestern school district. The interdisciplinary team sought to help ninth-graders make the transition from middle to high school. Despite…

This journal chronicles a sample of the papers and presentations delivered during previous annual meetings of the Maryland Association for Institutional Research on the fifth anniversary of that association. A first paper, one from the first annual meeting in 1987 titled "Environmental Scanning: Assessing Local Business Training Needs"…

Government pressures for universities to demonstrate greater efficiency while maintaining the quality of their activities have resulted in a range of performance indicators being adopted. However, questions of quality in teaching, learning, and research are hardly addressed by these indicators. Instead, more tangible measures of input and output…

A diverse group of individuals was asked to prepare brief commentaries on the condition of higher education, its contribution to the economic and social development of southern U.S., and its need for reform. The 12 resultant essays, each printed seperately, and gathered together in this collection: "Higher Education: A Prized Asset in Need of…

This brochure describes the AASCU/Sallie Mae National Retention Project's goals, beginnings, continuing work, and participants. An introduction describes how the Project has resulted in over 370 state institutions looking closely at their effectiveness in student learning and achievement and at emerging accountability requirements. An overview…

The New Zealand education structures were reorganized on a national scale in the late 1980s. In 18 months, a 100-year-old education system was radically restructured to create new administrative structures, new career paths, and new professional expectations for personnel. This paper summarizes these structural changes, reviews research reports…

This paper evaluates a professional development training program in Western Australia that focused on the development of skills for self-evaluation and school development sessions in the context of local, school, and system accountability. The evaluation attempted to determine: (1) the relevance and value of the learning experience; (2) skill…

Citing longstanding educational deficiencies in the Jersey City Public School System, the New Jersey State Board of Education unanimously voted to take control of the district on October 4, 1989. This paper studies the first year of New Jersey's takeover policy for failing school districts. Data were collected through interviews, direct…

From the 1960s to the present, the complexion of educational administration has changed greatly. One reason is growing public demand for input into educational decision-making; other factors are found in accountability, evaluation, opportunities for women, human rights, teacher militancy and collective bargaining agreements, changing enrollment…

Within the Illinois Community College System (ICCS), each of the 49 member colleges reports to the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB) on their improvements in productivity. This report summarizes the productivity reports on the ICCS colleges, examines the results of a series of analyses of productivity conducted by the ICCB from a statewide…

This report provides information on the Educational Quality Indicators (EQI) initiative, a 3-year collaboration between Alberta Education and 12 school jurisdictions to develop indicator systems that measure the success of the educational enterprise. Ten collaborative action-research projects were begun in 1989 and ended in 1992. Each project…

This conference presentation describes the AUEN (Addressing Unique Education Needs) system of assessing educational outcomes which is used by the Rochester (Michigan) Community Schools to help establish accountable and effective special education support programs and services. The AUEN provides an innovative and practical approach to assessment,…