During the last few years, a national quality assessment system for evaluation of the core activities of universities has been established in Sweden. Beyond participating in these national efforts, Lund University has also participated in the European benchmarking programme managed by ESMU (European Centre for Strategic Management of…

This study of school climate underscores the importance of the quality of interpersonal relationships in a school to student achievement. This study improves on previous studies in three ways: First, it makes use of a parsimonious school climate framework that is easier to interpret than previous measures; second, it replaces a subscale that…

This paper considers the process of being in special measures and looks at the experiences that teachers in five primary schools encountered. It also endeavours to establish links with generally accepted characteristics of school improvement as identified in previous research on sustained primary school improvement and school improvement in…

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the usefulness of the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), for the comparative analysis of alumni teachers. This article shows how SASS can be used as an evaluative tool by any institution that wants to appraise its alumni in comparison to those of its parallel institutions for the purposes of…

This study investigated the effects of the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction (SDLMI) on the academic skill performance of three junior high school students with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities. The academic skills taught were aligned to the district general curriculum, and extended benchmarks were individually determined.…

Diversity among institutions or, at least, institutional types, is a policy objective that most systems of higher education pursue although to different degrees. North American colleges and universities, for example, are among the most diverse in the world. In the East, Chinese universities have until recently tended to be highly homogeneous. At…

Conceptual Foundations are the theoretical, conceptual, philosophical, and historical aspects; perspectives from outside the field; trends, issues, and future directions; and social, political, and economic facets that underlie our field. This paper attempted to capture these foundational aspects, taking stock of accomplishments and suggesting…

Online courses have many components and dimensions. Both the form (structure) and the content (expression) are situated in an overall environment. The sum of these elements results in student outcomes and learning. In order to facilitate construction and evaluate the quality of an online course, a four-part rubric was designed to reflect:…

Fiscal federalism can be an important complement to structural reforms and budget consolidation. Empowering sub national governments, while at the same time making them accountable to local citizens in the uses of tax money, could improve the allocation of public resources and promote catch up of the lagging regions. Italy has launched itself in…

Researchers have recently suggested that the commonalities across the emotional disorders outweigh the differences, and thus similar treatment principles could be applied in unified interventions. In this study, the authors used a benchmarking strategy to investigate the transportability of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety and…

The use of online rater self-training is growing in popularity and has obvious practical benefits, facilitating access to training materials and rating samples and allowing raters to reorient themselves to the rating scale and self monitor their behaviour at their own convenience. However there has thus far been little research into rater…

Higher education institutions undertake a range of approaches to evaluating and making judgments about the quality of their e-learning provision. This paper begins by exploring benchmarking as one current strategy in common use in universities to identify and implement quality practices: from the use of checklists (for example, of best practices…

Effective technology transfer requires addressing several complexities that arise repeatedly in the vast majority of technology transfer projects. One of the objectives of this study was to define common issues/pitfalls/concerns among the various entities in the technology community and to allow them to express their views and opinions on how best…

This book offers strategies for enhancing a school's teaching and learning by using benchmarking, a team-research and data-driven process for increasing school effectiveness. Benchmarking enables professionals to study and know their systems and continually improve their practices. The book is designed to lead a team step by step through the…

This digest presents eight questions that pertain to how standards-based education affects classroom instruction and assessment at the local level. Various options and recommendations are provided to help education officials determine the practical concerns of standards-based education. The following questions are explored: (1) where will the…