Most European countries have introduced systematic quality assurance as part of an overall governance reform aimed at enhancing universities' autonomy. Researchers and economic entrepreneurs tend, however, to underestimate the political dimension of accreditation and evaluation when they consider the contribution of quality assurance to the…

Discusses how technical standards are established and how individuals can become part of the process. A list of some of the major standards-setting organizations is included. (JN)

In judgmental standard setting experiments, it may be difficult to specify subjective probabilities that adequately take the properties of the items into account. As a result, these probabilities are not consistent with each other in the sense that they do not refer to the same borderline level of performance. Methods to check standard setting…

This paper presents the background of the development of the International Standard Bibliographic Description for Serials and Other Continuing Resources, or ISBD(CR). Discussion includes: formation of a working group in 1997 to look at the existing ISBD and objectives of the project; the first official meeting of the working group in August 1998…

The Technology Costing Methodology (TCM) project developed and validated a generally agreed upon set of principles and practices for the costing of distributed/distance learning (DDL) courses. This article describes the TCM project, illustrates the application of the costing methodology (including capital costs), and concludes with a demonstration…

Discusses an assessment survey questionnaire administered to randomly selected sociology departments (n=150) regarding the level of development of their departmental statements of purpose, goals, and objectives among other questions. Reports that two thirds of the 70 respondents have a departmental statement of purpose, but less than half have…

States that government accounting is the product of mixing together budget-oriented and accounting-oriented voices. Presents a history of governmental accounting including the groups involved. An organization chart describes the current standard-setting structure. Accomplishments that improve reporting operations results are listed. (MLF)

The purpose of this article is to explore the foundations of the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium's (ISLLC's) Standards for School Leaders. First, the eight strategies used to develop the Standards are discussed. Second, responses are provided to six broad issues raised by colleagues who have provided critical reviews of the…

Standard-setting research has relied very heavily on certain types of information that, although helpful, may be inadequate for judging the quality of standard-setting results. To increase confidence in standard-setting results, the measurement community must understand far more about the panelists' task and about the factors that influence their…

This is a compilation of 12 primers on important information standards and protocols. These primers are: (1) Atom; (2) COinS; (3) MADS; (4) MARC 21/MARCXML; (5) MIX; (6) MXG; (7) OpenSearch; (8) PREMIS; (9) RESTful HTTP; (10) unAPI; (11) XMPP (aka Jabber); and (12) ZeeRex. The Atom Syndication Format defines a new XML-based syndication format for…

The digital age is infiltrating colleges of education around the country, but while some faculty are jumping on the bandwagon and working hard to improve their own technological literacy and that of their students, other faculty are resistant, afraid that technology may "dehumanize" education. School districts around the country are investing…

This article examined two item-writing guidelines: the format of the item stem and homogeneity of the answer set. Answering the call of Haladyna, Downing, and Rodriguez (2002) for empirical tests of item writing guidelines and extending the work of Smith and Smith (1988) on differential use of item characteristics, a mock multiple-choice driver's…

In this article, the author explores ways to determine what students learn in college and how well colleges teach them. The author offers two markers--one for graduating students and one for the institution from which the students graduate. The first marker, a comprehensive examination in a student's major, would be required as a condition of…

This Evidence Based Education (EBE) Request seeks to provide an overview of recent research regarding school improvement and reform with special concentration on turning around chronically low-performing schools. The response is divided into four main sections: Research on Effective Methods for Turning Around Low-Performing Schools, Frameworks for…

This report has been prepared as an introduction to standards-based individualized education programs (IEPs). It has been prepared especially for those who work in and are responsible for charter schools. It is an addition to the resources available on the Primers on Special Education in Charter Schools website that is designed specifically to…