Since the beginning of the 21st century, evaluability assessments have experienced a resurgence of interest. However, little is known about how evaluability assessments have been used to improve future evaluations. In this article, we identify characteristics, challenges, and opportunities of evaluability assessments based on a scoping review of…

This case study is based on a program evaluation of a professional certificate program that trains early childhood care and education providers to build and support young children's emotional literacy. The research project described in the case study will address approaches to methodological combination, justifying research design and changes to…

Until recently, legal challenges to using value-added models (VAMs) throughout the United States (US) for high-stakes teacher evaluative decisions (e.g., merit pay, tenure, and termination) were unsuccessful, especially in the state of Florida. Hence, prior and still, multiple teachers throughout Florida have been terminated or involuntarily…

This article introduces generalizability theory (G-theory) to institutional research and assessment practitioners, and explains how it can be utilized to evaluate the reliability of assessment procedures in order to improve student learning outcomes. The fundamental concepts associated with G-theory are briefly discussed, followed by a discussion…

This study aimed to demonstrate how one university worked to overcome some of the measurement problems associated with legacy student rating instruments through the creation and investigation of a new student rating instrument based on the most current scholarship on teaching and learning. Measurement problems with legacy instruments include…

For decades, educators and policy makers have decried low graduation rates at US colleges, advocating policies and making investments to improve graduation. We analyze a decade of Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) data for four-year colleges to investigate how much institutions have improved their graduation rates from 2008…

Program evaluations that lack experimental design often fail to produce evidence of impact because there is no available control group. Theory-based evaluations can generate evidence of a program's causal effects if evaluators collect evidence along the theorized causal chain and identify possible competing causes. However, few methods are…

Feedback is a powerful instructional tool for motivating learning. But effective feedback, requires that instructors have accurate information about their students' current knowledge status and their learning progress. In modern educational measurement, two major theoretical perspectives on student ability and proficiency can be distinguished.…

Student voice related to assessment, particularly in graduate educational leadership preparation programs, can be a powerful source of data to inform program development and implementation. This case study explores student experience and attitude toward assessment in two graduate level educational leadership programs at a midwestern university in…

As higher education quality assurance in many countries in Europe has become a mature activity, some agencies carrying out external quality assurance are developing beyond their core tasks and missions. The current study identifies new tasks taken up within quality assurance agencies and analyses the drivers behind such development. Based on an…

English Language teachers are expected to keep abreast with expectations and challenges that they come across in assisting their students to attain higher level of academic achievement. Studies show that teachers are unable to assess students accordingly as the current education system in Malaysia is too examination-oriented and over emphasises…

Quality is a multidimensional and transversal concept also in the field of higher education. This and other considerations revealed some problems during application of quality principles to study programmes, emerged from the first accreditation experience in Italy. The objective of this article is to provide a simple self-assessment tool for…

This case study explored the evaluation criteria applied by six supervisors of a private language institute (three men and three women) through individual in-depth interviews in an English-as-a-foreign-language context. The researchers also collected data from supervisors' observation checklists and written feedback. A thematic analysis resulted…

Context: The "U.S. News & World Report" college ranking system is used to describe the best graduate programs in the country. Rankings of graduate programs are based solely on perceived ratings of quality by directors and/or deans. Athletic training is not listed by "U.S. News & World Report"; however, the Commission on…

The Research Excellence Framework (REF) follows a set of submission rules. Here we analyse whether the submission rules of the impact element arguably shaped the submission sizes of the submitting units -- a group of academics researching on a specific subject area in higher education providers -- to the REF in 2014. The number of impact case…