The purpose of this report is to provide descriptive data regarding the test scores of Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) students in grades 4, 8 and 10 in reading, math and science, as reported to the School Choice Demonstration Project 2007-2008. The tables, graphs, and histograms presented in this report provide a snapshot of these…

This volume is a critical and objective study of the contemporary college student athlete. Framed around the process of recruitment, transition, and support of student athletes in higher education, the volume is a response to societal pressures to reform college athletics. Driven by publicity and the potential for revenue gains, colleges and…

This book argues that the educational mission should center on developing in students a respect for evidence and on supporting their capacity and desire to continue learning. The premise of this mission is based on John Dewey's notion that the most important attitude that can be formed is that of desire to go on learning. The book inquires into…

Expectations and roles of institutional researchers in higher education institutions are considered, as well as the question of what a research office should expect from its institution. A performance monitoring system for the assessment and continuous improvement of institutional research is also proposed. Ways that institutional research can be…

The University of Massachusetts system launched a legislative "Report Card" project in an effort to pre-empt accountability mandates and improve institutional performance. In the process, the University developed legislative survey and focus group tools, empowered a system-wide University Institutional Research Group; and developed peer…

This paper discusses the role of quality assurance in New South Wales school systems, which was created from the restructuring of traditional centralized bureaucracies. The emergent structure is comprised of devolved networks of schools operating within decentralized state systems. The purposes of these school systems are to enhance network…

This document, which highlights the efforts of the National Institute for Literacy to pilot the development of state literacy accountability systems in four states, outlines the components, operation, and importance of state accountability systems and discusses considerations in developing a systems approach to planning and implementing a quality…

This publication, one of a series examining the issue of faculty workload and productivity, argues that the key to institutional change in higher education is the role of college faculty and offers recommendations for improving and measuring college faculty productivity. The paper begins with a conceptual model for discussing faculty productivity,…

This book offers an approach to curriculum decision making aimed at helping Catholic schools become or remain values-based, learning-centered communities for the 21st century. The outcomes-based approach argues that educators have three primary responsibilities--identify what is the significant learning, design valid ways for students to…

This paper discusses the current crisis in higher education in the United States, in regard to decreasing resources, access, equity, societal role, accountability, and public trust. It also reports on a survey of five higher education administrators and five state government education officials that sought to determine what they believed would be…

This book provokes a re-examination of how expert knowledge, not practitioner know-how, has come to dominate how Americans judge and improve schools. It depicts the English tradition of school inspection to provoke the invention of better ways for judging and knowing schools in America. Data were gathered by observation of 39 local and national…

Many observers of educational policy feel that in the rush to devolve responsibility, difficult questions about the capacity of states and localities to be accountable for results are being overlooked. This document describes the different strategies used by 10 states to move toward a results-oriented system of services, supports, and…

This document sets out the respective responsibilities of the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council (SHEFC) and the Higher Education Quality Council (HEQC) as they currently stand in the field of higher education quality assurance. The SHEFC and the HEQC are both agencies that fulfill legislatively mandated quality assessment and control…

A popular image today is that students are "consumers" and teachers are "producers" and "sellers" of education. Many in academia claim that economic metaphors distort and corrupt the true nature of education and they offer a variety of alternative images of the relationships between teachers and students: traveler/guide, worker/boss, artistic…

Tennessee has adopted a model of educational accountability called the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS). The model attempts to measure district, school, and teacher effects on student academic gains, rather than emphasizing achievement scores at a single time, using data generated by a standardized test, the Tennessee Comprehensive…