The inaugural Advancement Investment Metrics Study, or AIMS, benchmarked investments and staffing in each of the advancement disciplines (advancement services, alumni relations, communications and marketing, fundraising and advancement management) as well as the return on the investment in fundraising specifically. This white paper reports on the…

If the results of the most recent international achievement tests were graded on a curve, U.S. students probably would rank somewhere in the B range. They placed 14th in reading, 17th in science and 25th in mathematics among 70 countries whose 15-year-olds participated in the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) testing, the…

This article examines the logic underlying different models for assessing the college readiness of high school students. It focuses on benchmark scores that purportedly identify students who are college ready and presents the challenges of using threshold scores from a single assessment instrument to represent readiness. As well as providing…

This study addresses missing links in "college for all" debates by investigating gaps between actual and desirable math achievement trajectories for students' college readiness. Linking multiple national data sets across P-16 education levels, the study estimates college readiness benchmarks separately for two-year and four-year college…

Purpose: The environmental challenges of digitalization, globalization, and industrialization, which are growing at a fast pace, require serious attention. As a result, the old structures of the education system established in pre-independent India and in place during most of the twentieth century are now required to undergo drastic changes. The…

In summer 2003, the W. K. Kellogg Foundation awarded a grant to the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) to address the national need for community college leaders. An extensive data-gathering process, part of the AACC Leading Forward project, resulted in the creation of the AACC competencies for community college leaders. This…

Since military operations began in Afghanistan and Iraq, lengthy deployments have led to concerns about the vulnerability of military marriages. Yet evaluating military marriages requires some benchmark against which marital outcomes in the military may be compared. These analyses drew from personnel records from the entire male population of the…

The word "evaluation" often strikes fear in people, but the author is different. She has always been a person who thought of evaluation, in any form, as a way to make her better and help her strive for excellence. So naturally when her library supervisor announced at a meeting that they were going to do the American Association of School…

Quality is a multi-dimensional concept and embraces all functions and activities of higher education (academic programs, research, and community services) in all their features and components. Traditionally quality was a measure of resources and reputation. In recent years there has been a shift in emphasis to institutional best practices such as…

In the era of globalization, accountability, and benchmarking, university rankings have achieved a kind of iconic status. The major ones--the Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU, or the "Shanghai rankings"), the QS (Quacquarelli Symonds Limited) World University Rankings, and the "Times Higher Education" World…

Interventions based on the results of functional behavioral assessment (FBA) have been the topic of extensive research and, in certain cases, mandated for students with disabilities under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. There exist a wide variety of methods for conducting such assessments, with little consensus in the field. The…

This study compared a value-added approach to school accountability to the currently used metrics of accountability in California of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) and Academic Performance Index (API). Five-year student panel data (N?=?53,733) from 29 elementary schools in a large California school district were used to address the research…

This article discusses the role of assessment in a response-to-intervention model. Although assessment represents only 1 component in a response-to-intervention model, a well-articulated assessment system is critical in providing teachers with reliable data that are easily interpreted and used to make instructional decisions. Three components of…

Through a secondary analysis of a case study on successful school leadership, this study inquired into the lived experiences and understandings of Catholic identity from the perspectives of administrators, faculty, staff, and students at one urban Catholic school in the northeastern United States. Participants generally spoke about Catholic…

This research explores and tests the effect of an innovative performance feedback practice--feedback supplemented with web-based peer benchmarking--through a lens of social cognitive framework for self-regulated learning. The results suggest that providing performance feedback with references to exemplary peer output is positively associated with…