Since its independence in 1965, Singapore has adopted a developmental state orientation and has placed a strong emphasis on education to meet its socio-economic development needs. In line with its aspirations to be a regional education hub, the Singapore higher education system hosts a number of prestigious institutions and international…

The Office of Child Care (OCC) administers the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) program, a multibillion-dollar Federal and State partnership to support access to high-quality child care for working families. OCC helps States, Territories, and Tribes administer their CCDF programs through program support, policy guidance, technical…

The American Academy for Liberal Education (AALE) was founded in 1992 for "the purpose of supporting and recognizing excellence in undergraduate liberal arts teaching and learning through accreditation." AALE's current scope of recognition is for the accreditation and pre-accreditation (Candidacy for Accreditation) of institutions of higher…

The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Council on Academic Accreditation in Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology (CAA) is a national accrediting agency of graduate education programs in audiology or speech-language pathology. The CAA currently accredits or or preaccredits 319 programs (247 in speech-language pathology and 72 in…

Purpose: Special Focus Facilities (SFFs) are nursing facilities designated by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to be of chronic poor quality. Relatively few nursing facilities are included in this initiative. The purpose of this research was to examine whether nursing facilities included in the 2007 SFF initiative subsequently…

This article adopts a theoretical approach to analyse the evolution of the quality agenda in English higher education. Using the concept of reification, it shows how the quasi-state has attempted to build a "natural" understanding of the idea of quality. However, the policy implementation process has demonstrated the fragility of the…

High EdWell aware of the growing importance of the global university ranking exercises, many governments in East Asia have introduced different strategies to benchmark with leading universities in order to enhance the global competitiveness of their universities. With strong determination to do better in such global ranking exercises, universities…

Since 1970, quality assurance, or outcomes assessment, has provided guidance for improving pedagogy, curricula and student support programmes in the US. But evidence that student learning has improved remains elusive. Large-scale long-term studies are needed to demonstrate the effects of outcomes assessment on learning.

Quality assurance in the area of higher education has become a central issue among both politicians and scientists. University evaluations which refer to both research and teaching are an important element of quality assurance. The present contribution starts out by determining the different components of quality at universities according to…

This paper reflects on what we have learned about how quality has been received in higher education. The complexity of quality policy in terms of implementation is noted, as is the importance of front-line academics as policy users. The "formal" and "situated" meanings of quality are considered and the importance of context is emphasised. It is…

When colleges turned to online learning, they opened the door for a number of students who might have only dreamed of pursuing a degree or credential. In 2006, the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) surveyed prospective adult students without a college degree and discovered that they were three times more likely to enroll in…

This article is a validation study of two national large-scale tests that measure the language proficiency of 11/12 year-old English learners in Norway and Slovenia. Following the example of Alderson and Banerjee (2008), the authors of the article have employed the EALTA guidelines for good practice to validate the tests, and to formulate major…

The report, which reflects the framework of the Leuven/Louvain-la-Neuve Communique, is the result of a joint effort by Eurostat, Eurydice as well as by Eurostudent and has been overseen by the Bologna Follow-up Group and more specifically by a working group established by the latter. In line with the specific mission and methodology of the…

The argument made in this paper is that good quality is subsumed into the practices of skillful participants and that institutions should act upon their consciences. This is particularly important in the complex blending of the workplace and the academy, where codified quality may disrupt learning rather than support a flourishing environment for…

Spatial, cultural, and linguistic barriers create information asymmetries between buyers and sellers that impede international trade. The International Organization for Standardization's ISO 9000 program is designed to reduce these information asymmetries by providing assurance about the product quality of firms that receive its certification.…