Pre-employment background screening is becoming more commonplace as employers strive to provide a safe, secure environment for their employees and customers. However, in order for background screening policies to work properly, they must be consistent, fair and within the boundaries of the law. One way to ensure that these criteria are being met…

This article describes how despite the fact that a number of reading programs have satisfied the requirement under the federal reading law for embodying a strong research base, there appeared a limited outside evidence that any of them has produced a conclusive and consistent effect on overall reading achievement. The publishers of each of the…

In this article, we discuss the development of online courses in higher education in terms of the in- structional quality and economic costs. In our conceptual analysis, we point out problems in developing online courses with sufficient quality due to limited funds being made available for online course development. Moreover, economic costs exist…

The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has recently issued Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 141 (Revised 2007) Business Combinations. The object of this Statement is to improve the relevance, representational faithfulness, and comparability of reported information about a business combination and its effects. This Statement…

The annual collection and publication by the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council (SFC) of college performance indicators has focused attention on what these indicators actually tell and whether they provide a fully comprehensive and meaningful story of what college learners achieve. Since 2005 HMIE has overtly made more holistic…

Women remain outsiders in university leadership and management. The literature indicates that discipline base, career mobility, experience outside academia, selection processes, and gender stereotyping may impact on women becoming senior managers. This article reports on research with current and former Vice-Chancellors, senior managers, and…

High stakes accountability (HSA) reforms were enacted in state after state and federally through the No Child Left Behind law, based on the belief that incentives that have consequences attached are effective ways to motivate educators to improve student performance. Our focus for this article is on school district level responses to HSA reforms…

For nearly a decade, ACT has measured student progress in the context of college readiness. "The Condition of College & Career Readiness" is ACT's annual report on the college readiness of the most recent high school graduating class. The data herein provide insights to catalyze and guide efforts to improve college and career…

Quality assurance for distance higher education is one of the main concerns among institutions and stakeholders today. This paper examines the experiences of Universitas Terbuka (UT), which has initiated and implemented an innovative strategy of quality assurance (QA) for continuous improvement. The credo of the UT quality assurance system is…

The purpose of this research study was to determine benchmark scores on the SAT that predict a 65 percent probability or higher of getting a first-year college grade point average of either 2.7 or higher or 2.0 or higher, to use these benchmarks to describe the level of college readiness in the nation and in certain demographic subgroups, and to…

Whilst concern has been expressed at the increasing severity of the mental health of students, there has been very little research on this growing population outside of small, single institution studies. The aims of this paper are to provide CORE Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) norms for the psychological health of students across multiple sites…

Research in the area of student engagement has shown that the more engaged minority students are with faculty and staff, with other students, and with the subject matter they study, the more likely they are to learn and persist toward achieving their academic goals. Secondary data from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE)…

The early learning content standards describe essential concepts and skills for young children. Based on research, these achievable indicators emerge as the result of quality early learning experiences regardless of the setting (e.g., nursery school, preschool, family care, etc.). In addition, the early learning content indicators are aligned to…

The success of standards-based education systems depends on two elements: strong standards and assessments that measure what the standards expect. States that have, or adopt, test-based accountability programs claim that their tests are aligned to their standards. But there has been, up to now, no independent methodology for checking alignment.…

Data were collected from 12 states with Certified Public Manager training programs to establish benchmarks. The 38 benchmarks were in the following areas: program leadership, stability of administrative/financial support, consistent management philosophy, administrative control, participant selection/support, accessibility, application of…