Accountability efforts at California's community colleges gained prominence in the 1990s under an agreement known as Partnership for Excellence (PFE) that involved the chancellor's office, the legislature, and the governor's office. This agreement was the first wide-ranging accountability effort undertaken by the state's community college system.…

In this study, we investigated the changes in physical education programs from 2001 to 2006 based on an analysis of data reported in The Shape of the Nation Report: Status of Physical Education in the USA (National Association for Sport and Physical Education, 2006). Means and standard deviations for numeric variables in the reports were computed,…

This issue and the winter 2007-2008 issue (vol. 39, no. 4) of "European Education" address the implications of competition for the future of European higher education. Studies bear on the initiatives taken over the past few years in Europe to enhance the harmonization of European higher education systems and particularly the Bologna…

Although becoming widespread, especially in view of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and without a universally-accepted definition, most discussions of standards-based reforms (SBR) include certain commonalities, including: (1) Academic expectations for students; (2) Alignment of key elements of the educational system to promote attainment of these…

The teaching observation process in a higher education context can be underpinned by an intention to enhance learning and teaching or used as a managerial tool to ensure standards are met or maintained. In this article we examine the perceptions of observees using a model that engages educational developers as observers. We seek to examine whether…

This guide, which examines the relationship between learning processes and learning outcomes, is aimed at senior managers, quality managers, and others at colleges and other post-16 learning providers in the United Kingdom. It is intended to help them define the key processes undertaken by learning providers, understand the critical relationships…