Examines how benchmarking, a continuous quality improvement process, can be used to define and improve the quality of school-to-work curricula. Provides a set of standards developed by the National Consortium of Product Quality that can be used to guide curriculum review. Describes a six-step benchmarking process. (AJL)

In Australia's National Professional Development Program for teachers, key processes are evaluation, quality, benchmarking, and cost-benefit analysis. Educators in South Australia (SA) are attempting to differentiate between quality assurance in project management and in program evaluation. (SK)

Reviews research and case studies of Internet-based degree programs to gain a better understanding of the impact of information technology on student equity and overall standards of quality. Offers recommendations suggesting that governmental strategies related to online education should be limited in scope and promote two goals: equal opportunity…

Discusses yearly information technology costs for academic libraries. Topics include transformation and modernization activities that affect prices and budgeting; a cost model for information technologies; life cycle costs, including initial costs and recurring costs; cost benchmarks; and examples of pressures concerning cost accountability. (LRW)

Used a suite of Rasch measurement techniques to meet competing demands in establishing statewide benchmarks relating to the School Opinion Survey carried out over 1,200 government schools in 1 Australian state. Solutions to a variety of measurement and reporting problems were all found within the Rasch family of models. (SLD)

Describes a 1999 benchmarking survey of 15 economics departments in private universities. Reports information gleaned from the survey concerning departmental resources, teaching load, class sizes, and the weight given to research, teaching, and service in salary determination and promotion. (RLH)

Findings from meta-analyses of outdoor education, psychotherapy, and educational innovations are presented to help determine the relative efficacy of adventure therapy programs. While adventure therapy effects are stronger than those of outdoor education, they are not nearly as strong as those of individual psychotherapy. Benchmarks are derived…

Discusses quality assurance benchmarks for distance education and describes results of a survey of academic staff at higher education institutions in Hong Kong that measured their perception of quality assurance in Web-based learning. Examines institutional support; course development; teaching/learning process; course structure; student support;…

Following the lead of Xerox and Ford, U.S. industry is embracing benchmarking as fundamental to quality improvement efforts. Schools can adopt this practice by comparing themselves to the best schools. The first steps are selecting specific improvement areas and identifying model schools for comparison. Visionary leadership is essential. (MLH)

Summarizes federal and state actions regarding national standards and describes two private groups: the College Board and its partner the Educational Testing Service; and the New Standards Project, a joint effort of the National Center on Education and the Economy and the Learning Research and Development Center. (MLF)

Cautions that Year 3 and Year 5 Literacy Benchmarks, which set minimum literacy and numeracy standards for all Australian students, can measure but cannot transform student outcomes. Calls upon English professionals to put forth constructive suggestions for effective teaching methods that will enable students to reach the required goals. (NH)

Preschool and kindergarten teachers can help young learners meet early literacy standards without sacrificing developmentally appropriate practice. Several professional associations have described appropriate expectations for children of different age levels known as milestones, developmental accomplishments, and benchmarks. (MLH)

The master of management program at Cornell University focused on competency-based development of skills for the hospitality industry through core courses, minicourses, skill benchmarking, and continuous improvement. Benefits include a shift in the teacher role to advocate/coach, increased information sharing, student satisfaction, and clear…

Offers case studies of best training practices in leading companies (AEtna, Andersen Worldwide, Boeing, Digital Equipment, Tektronix, Texas Instruments, Allstate, and Sprint), elected by the Benchmarking Forum of the American Society for Training and Development. The practices are technology based and performance oriented and herald common…

Addresses the problem of benchmarking image browsers. Existence of different search paradigms for image browsers makes it difficult to compare them. Currently, the only admissible evaluation method involves conducting large-scale user studies. An automatic image browser benchmark is proposed that uses structured text annotation of the image…