Argues that Americans can learn from the wide variety of types of assessment included in French national evaluations, from the way these exams are used formatively on a large scale to plan instruction and professional development (rather than to pass or fail children or to reward or punish teachers), and from the hazards of a single high stakes…

Considers five major interests at stake in higher education: social justice, competence, academic freedom, autonomy/accountability, and decentralization/centralization. Suggests that the implementation of conflicting interests is less a matter of the relation between the state and higher education than of relations between the academic profession…

The recent examination of the curriculum and examination systems of France and the Netherlands overlooks the real process of creating a national consensus around standards in the Netherlands, balancing local autonomy and national standards. A comment by the original authors acknowledges the implications of the Dutch approach for U.S. standards.…

A model of quality assessment for higher education that incorporates both accountability (representing extrinsic values) and peer-review/collegiality (reflecting intrinsic values) is outlined. It is presented in both a historical context and the context of experiences with quality assessment in North America and Western Europe. (Author/MSE)

A comparative analysis of the process by which conflicting interests are implemented in the higher education systems of the United States, England, Sweden, and France is presented. Attention is also directed to differentiation in these systems, and to the systems' receptiveness to such differentiation (i.e., splitting up existing functions, or…