Purpose: This paper seeks to concentrate on bottom-up approaches in order to promote a European vocational education and training (VET) concept. The overall aim of this article is to demonstrate that sophisticated approaches still have a chance of becoming common practice in European countries. Design/methodology/approach: The centre of the…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to address the development of a European architecture of vocational education and promote an alternative proposal. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is the result of discussions of researchers in the Institut Technik und Bildung on a European Qualification Framework. Findings: The paper provides an…

Purpose: The quality of an education system or a comparative international assessment refers more and more to quantitative parameters, i.e. "educational indicators." The paper aims to analyse the structure of several educational indicators and indicator systems and answer the question "What can educational indicators achieve?"…

Psychometricians continue to introduce new approaches to setting cut scores for educational assessments in an attempt to improve on current methods. In this paper we describe the Item-Descriptor (ID) Matching method, a method based on IRT item mapping. In ID Matching, test content area experts match items (i.e., their judgments about the knowledge…

E-learning in the European Higher Education Area has stampeded its way to the foreground of the Quality Assurance (QA) forum, and has become a key issue among quality assurance agencies and institutions in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Because internet-based learning is currently such a relevant topic, there is a dire need for the…

This article provides the background and describes the processes involved in establishing a national approach to benchmarking the way universities engage with their local and regional communities in Australia. Local and regional community engagement is a rapidly expanding activity in Australian public universities and is increasingly being seen as…

The author, chair of the Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation, compares the Evaluation Research Society (ERS) and Joint Committee Standards and proposes that ERS and the Joint Committee consider merging their standard-setting efforts. (Author/LC)

Points out that political and economic pressures have sometimes caused the Financial Accounting Standards Board to alter standards. Presents a spreadsheet tool that demonstrates the economic consequences of adopting accounting standards. (SK)

Problems inherent in setting standards/passing scores for criterion-referenced tests are discussed; and traditional methods of setting standards are reviewed. Three acceptable methods based on judgments of questions are discussed; their authors include, respectively: (1) W. H. Angoff (1971); (2) R. L. Ebel (1972); and (3) L. Nedelsky (1954). (SLD)

This article details a pilot Minimum Standards assessment in Afghan refugee schools supported by the International Rescue Committee's Female Education Program in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan. A set of specifically selected, contextualized indicators, based on the global INEE Minimum Standards, served as a tool for teachers and…

This article describes standards setting in an evaluation of the structure of 15 of the nation's university hospitals who participated in the Teaching Hospital General Medicine Group Practice Program. Standards were (1) selected from many sources; (2) formed in a participatory, competing forum for discussion; and (3) set in advance of information…

This paper describes a practical method for identifying and communicating expectations of student performance in the classroom. The method has been used at McREL for clients who require a systematic approach to setting performance expectations and communicating these to their constituents. This document in organized in the following sections: (1)…

Evaluation standards can be useful not only as a framework for the design but as an assessment of particular evaluations. They can also serve as indicators for the developmental stage of evaluation practice in different areas or countries. Until recently, there has not been any large-scale and comprehensive empirical investigation of knowledge and…

Research studies that have investigated the use of mastery testing models and other related techniques are examined. A review of the procedures suggested for setting the pass fail point is also discussed. (Author/DEP)

This article responds to the "Standards for Evaluation of Educational Programs, Projects and Materials" by addressing three issues in qualitative research: (1) data quality; (2) data verification; and (3) collusion between evaluators and their sponsors. To be of maximum international value, the standards report needs more emphasis on…