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…

Higher Education Institutions are undergoing important changes involving the development of new roles and missions, with implications for their structure. Governments and institutions are implementing strategies to ensure the proper performance of universities and several studies have investigated evaluation of universities through the development…

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…

Since the 1999-2000 school year, TAP: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement (TAP) has been implemented in hundreds of schools across the nation and demonstrated an ability to raise student achievement, improve the quality of instruction and increase the ability of high-need schools to recruit, retain and support effective teachers. The…

Annually American College Testing (ACT) provides a snapshot of the college and career readiness of ACT-tested high school graduates. This report is designed to help educators understand and answer the following questions: (1) Are students prepared for college and career, and are younger students on target? (2) Are enough students taking core…

In response to growing concerns about college readiness, the Kentucky legislature revised the state's assessment and accountability system in an effort to increase the number of students who are ready for college when they graduate. The Kentucky Department of Education and the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education responded by redefining…

This study uses Corpus Linguistic (CL) techniques to explore multiple turn openings in conjunction with comparative measures of turn-initial priming (the proportion of occurrences of a form that are turn-initial). Using a benchmark corpus of casual conversation as a point of comparison, six frequent items which have a particularly strong affinity…

The study assessed the adequacy of instructional resources available for business education programmes at the colleges of education in Edo and Delta states of Nigeria in relation to the standards stipulated by the National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE). The study adopted the ex-post facto research design and was guided by five…

International large-scale assessments (ILSAs) play a distinct role in the United States' decentralized federal education system. Separate from national and state assessments, they offer an external, objective measure for the United States to assess student performance comparatively with other countries and over time. The US engagement in ILSAs…

Ethnographic research in a further education College (Borough College) between 2000 and 2005 assessed the impact of performance indicators (PIs) within a department teaching GCSEs and A-levels. Research focused on PIs integral to the Learning and Skills Council funding formula, the Common Inspection Framework and newspaper league tables, and the…