In many of Germany's states the procedures for school inspections were amended following completion of a first evaluation cycle. This chapter examines the way changes carried out in the course of reform were configured with respect to content and process. It is based on the assumption that school inspections represent an institution whose…

This chapter introduces the fundamental principles and concepts of school inspections. School inspections will be defined and distinguished from other types of evaluation, such as quality monitoring, internal evaluations and audit. The chapter will also present examples of different inspection practices across Europe and explain how these have…

Despite the large number of new international schools opening each year, very little innovation is evident in the market. DiMaggio and Powell (1983) use institutional isomorphism to explain the phenomenon of organisations in a field being similar and this paper investigates the extent to which accreditation contributes to that phenomenon. By…

During recent years many European countries have modernized the governance of their education systems according to an 'evidence-based model' which, e.g., materialized in new school inspections and comparative performance assessment. Qualitative case study data of six primary and secondary schools is used to explore in-school processes of…

Institutional researchers are often tasked with assessing why college-wide initiatives succeed or fail. This can be a difficult task: researchers need to discriminate between multiple feasible explanations, work with limited data, and produce compelling narratives. Process tracing is a qualitative methodology that enables researchers to make valid…

This article charts the influence of American accreditation policies on postsecondary arts education practices. Some commentators suggest that accreditation is a standards- and evidence-based process. I argue that trust is at the center of concerns about assessment in higher education, especially in the arts. The purpose of this article is to…

This paper focuses on the development and implementation of the Institutional Assessment Plan through integrated processes in which the assessment informs the decisions on budgetary matters and resource allocation. One of the key challenges in developing and implementing an institutional assessment plan is that often the decisions at the micro,…

This report presents the background and subsequent founding of the Historically Black College and University (HBCU) Collaboration for Excellence in Educational Quality Assurance (CEEQA). CEEQA is the first collaborative of its kind, and seeks to help address accountability measures while being true to HBCU missions and culturally relevant…

This work explores how a country's political status may impact its soft power policies, such as internationalization of higher education, through an examination of the Turkish case. Based on a survey of and subsequent interviews with actual implementers of policy, university international office heads and staff, the study draws on the theory of…

America's regional public universities provide the opportunity for upward social mobility, or the generational movement of wealth, education, employment status, social adjustment, democratic participation, and general well-being. A college degree is generally thought of as the ticket to social mobility for individuals, and collectively, higher…

Based on data from interviews conducted with 14 academic managers at two Swedish universities, this article investigates the consequences of the increasing prevalence of performance measurement in the higher education sector. The study contributes to the discussion of how performance measurement impacts academic work, focusing specifically on its…

As with school self-evaluation in most European countries, the Irish education system now promotes the involvement and inclusion of stakeholders such as parents and students in the evaluation process. Yet, in the Irish context, there is limited research exploring the role of these stakeholders in this internal mode of school evaluation. To address…

One of the greatest promises of the charter school movement has been the potential to create diverse school models to meet the varied needs of children, families, and communities. As policy makers and charter leaders have recognized the need to hold charters accountable for strong performance, however, there has been a move towards more…

Quality in higher education is -- and has been for many years - at the top of the political agenda. The concept of quality has been explored extensively in the literature as has the means to measure and monitor quality. Connected to these two literatures is a widespread and somewhat fragmented literature on what might initially be termed quality…

Universities must secure stakeholder support to ensure the successful implementation of most initiatives. However, given the shared governance structures and collegial cultures of many universities, what strategies do university leaders enact to obtain stakeholder support? Although several stakeholder management and organizational response models…