Describes a study conducted to ascertain the perceptions of various stakeholder groups on selected measures of institutional quality. States that questionnaires were distributed to 1,962 students, faculty, and staff at a two-year college; response rate was 49% (n=955). Concludes that outcome indicators (such as pass rates on licensure…

The history books will show that New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg seized control of the city's sprawling public school bureaucracy and its 1.1 million students on July 1, 2002. But it was 18 months later when New Yorkers got their first real taste of what mayoral control and accountability were supposed to be about: when reports of escalating…

In Japan, there has been an increased concern about family and community participation in the child's education. Traditionally, the role of parents and community in Japan has been one of support and less one of active involvement in school learning. Since the government commenced education reforms in the last quarter of the 20th century, a more…

The purposes of large-scale assessment and classroom assessment are often seen as distinct: Large-scale assessments, including school district, state, and national assessments, are directed at the formative and summative assessments of educational programs, while classroom assessments are focused primarily on the educational status or progress of…

To describe their knowledge of assessment, specifically prepared scripts from 30 novice teachers were content analysed. Knowledge of the formative-summative mode was evident in all scripts but the connections made between this mode of assessment and the other principles of assessment were not well developed. Knowledge of assessment methods was…

This article presents two reports on the interviews with school principals in Belgium and France. The first report presents the results of interviews with 5 Flemish secondary school leaders. The purpose of the investigation was to gain an explorative insight of their use of and their remarks on the recent initiated systems to provide schools with…

Global trends in the new public management (NPM) of education have manifested themselves differently in different countries. Its manifestation, the significant issue that this paper addresses, is whether it has led to any changes in education in the third level sector in the Republic of Ireland in the last 10 years. This will be achieved through a…

With the UN Decade in Education for Sustainable Development (2005-2014) approaching, the question is "how well positioned is Australia to respond to the challenge of educating for sustainability?". The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief summary of ESD status, needs and innovations at the national level within Australia. ESD is…

Australia's indigenous population is made up of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, who each have distinctly different cultures. The former can be found in cities and towns and across the vast reaches of rural and remote Australia. The latter generally inhabit the coastal islands off the northeast coast and adjacent mainland areas.…

The role and performance of the engineering and scientific institutions in the UK have been undergoing gradual change in response to external, State and global influences. Consequently, the institutions are having to adapt and in the process of doing so the traditional balance between learned society and qualifying association activities is now in…

The significance of information technology in education is usually assessed or evaluated on terms of some measures of effectiveness. In different school settings the effectiveness is operationalized in different ways, and in the literature various methods of determining the effectiveness have been discussed (e.g., Secretary's Conference on…

The purpose of this article is to look at the experience of Bhutan in using examinations as a tool for assessing and systematically monitoring the health of the education system. The strategy in both school-based and nationwide examinations is three-fold: (1) monitoring of standards for the formally prescribed national curriculum across the…

Quality education has always been a priority for UNESCO and its Member States--a priority that was reaffirmed at the Dakar World Education Forum in 2000. In this regard, the Director-General invited Ministers of Education to participate in a Ministerial Round-Table Meeting on Quality Education on 3 and 4 October 2003, during the thirty-second…

This article describes changes in the practice of two teachers, observed over an 18-month period, who were participating in a study intended to support teachers in developing their use of assessment in support of learning. The design of the intervention allowed each teacher to choose for themselves which aspects of their practice to develop.…

Despite policy mandates to include students with disabilities in educational assessment and accountability programs, current practices suggest a substantial lack of capacity for effective inclusion. Continuing professional development (CPD) is an essential component of disseminating and implementing effective inclusion practices. Recent reviews of…