Accrediting agencies, legislators, pundits, and even higher educational professionals have become enamored with applying the language of continuous improvement to learning outcomes. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges specifically uses the term "continuing improvement" in Core Standard 2.5, one of its…

School inspection, school self-evaluation and the relationship between them are important themes in current educational policy debates. Many education systems are seeking to find a balance between the, at times, conflicting demands for a robust, transparent and effective system of school evaluation that at the same time allows for professional…

The cause of this investigation was to identify the main reasons which decline the educational standards at secondary level in Karachi, Pakistan. It was carried out through survey. The population of the study was both "government and private" schools students and teachers. The views of male and female students and teachers were sought…

This article investigates the effect of Dutch primary school inspections on test scores. These inspections are assessments of the educational quality of schools. The authors use two approaches to estimate the effect of the inspections. The first approach, based on a standard fixed effects model, indicates that inspections lead to slightly better…

As of January 2012, more than 850,000 active foreign students were in the United States enrolled at over 10,000 U.S. schools. ICE, within DHS, is responsible for managing SEVP and certifying schools to accept foreign students. GAO was asked to review ICE's fraud prevention and detection procedures for SEVP. This report examines the extent to which…

Communities across the country are grappling with different approaches to improving their schools. Introducing or expanding charter schools is one of the approaches that states and school districts have considered or implemented. Charter schools serve more than 5 percent of public school students nationwide and make up close to 7 percent of all…

Graduate education in hospitality is a growing field with a number of different approaches and philosophies which inform the decisions and directions put forth by program administrators. A case study explains the methods and justifications used by one institution to conduct a self assessment to assure high quality graduate hospitality education.…

The article grounds the structure of the external evaluation of colleges at the level of the non-university higher education sector, and it reveals the problems met in this process as well as possibilities for their solution: the phenomenon of the external evaluation of colleges is discussed and its concept is presented; the external evaluation…

At the beginning of the last 20 years so-called "quality revolution" it was expected from most of the established national quality agencies that internal quality systems and the development of an internal quality culture would emerge automatically in the HEI from the external quality impact. The author argues that a better balance must be found…

Federal officials plan to overhaul the reporting requirements for higher education-based teacher preparation in favor of leaner, outcome-based indicators of program quality, according to plans outlined in the president's fiscal 2012 budget request. To bolster the overhaul, the budget also proposes a $185 million new formula grant program, dubbed…

The higher education literature continues to highlight difficulties with efforts to implement and sustain institutional effectiveness activities. This article describes an implementation effectiveness model from the field of organizational management and applies it to the implementation of institutional effectiveness initiatives in higher…

This article explores the relationship between the lack of visible attention to formative assessment in degree specifications and its marginalization in practice. Degree specification documents form part of the quality apparatus emphasizing the accountability and certification duties of assessment. Ironically, a framework designed to assure…

The HMIE publication, "External quality arrangements for Scotland's colleges," specifies that HMIE will produce a number of subject aspect reports over the four years 2008-12. These aspect reports complement in a subject-specific context the generic evaluations of learning and teaching in HMIE's reports of external review of colleges.…

When Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU) opened its doors to students in August 1997, a commitment to graduating "ecologically literate" students had already been established. Faculty from across disciplines were courted to advance this endeavour. FGCU requires all undergraduates to complete a course on sustainable development, called…

Begun in 2003, the National Undergraduate Teaching and Learning Evaluation, conducted in regular universities every five years, has surveyed the significance of evaluation and index scheme improvement at 171 higher education institutions. The launch in January 2007 of the national project of Undergraduate Teaching Quality and Teaching Reform in…