This report informs Senator the Hon. Simon Birmingham, Minister for Education and Training, the Parliament of Australia, the Australian higher education community and the general public about the performance of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA or the Agency) during the financial year ending 30 June 2015. Prepared…

Assessments matter in education. Testing is nothing new; tests have been around as long as school itself. However, over the last 15 years, state assessments have grown to be an increasingly central, and often controversial, part of schooling. As states raise their standards, it is more important than ever to ask: What is a high-quality assessment?…

This Annual Service Plan Report discusses the results related to measures in the Ministry of Education's 2015/16-2017/18 Service Plan. Work within the Ministry is driven by the Minister's Mandate Letter, aligning with government's strategic mandate and the Ministry's goals, objectives, and strategies. Comparing performance against these principles…

This feature article charts the efforts of the California Association of Professors of Educational Administration (CAPEA) to move from primarily a policy-driven organization that lacked a significant number of diverse members and perspectives to a values-driven organization committed to equity and cultural competency. This is a chronicle of the…

The defining characteristic of a bubble is unsustainable growth that eventually reverses. Bubbles typically arise when uncertainty leads to unsustainable trends, and the authors argue that there are two areas in which higher education has experienced what appear to be unsustainable trends, namely, college costs (the costs to students, parents, and…

There is a paradox at the heart of the education debate on building the best generation of teachers. Ministers criticise teachers for not raising standards. Yet their answer is to change the governance structures of school. Why not address the real challenge--how to raise the status and quality of teaching in this country? It matters far more what…

The system of higher professional education being updated in Russia, including the federal state educational standards, calls for an orientation toward the interests of customers, providing students with greater opportunities to choose and implement their own educational trajectory, increasing the proportion of independent creative research work…

Purpose: This paper aims to focus on the changing nature of quality assurance systems within the sixth form college sector. Design/methodology/approach: Ten sixth form colleges were surveyed across England and staff from varying levels within college hierarchies questioned about how quality assurance systems were implemented. Research involved…

The research on grading practice over two decades is clear: grading practices are firmly held beliefs that are near and dear to the teaching professional. At a time when government, business and industry, and the general public are calling for an accountability of student knowledge and abilities, classroom assessment practices could be…

"The State of Preschool 2017" is the 15th edition of the National Institute for Early Education Research's (NIEER) annual report tracking state-funded preschool access, resources, and quality. Since 2002, many states have made progress, a few have fallen behind, and a handful have emerged as leaders. As a result, disparities in access to…

The importance of quality education in nation building cannot be over emphasized. There have been several calls on the educational managers on how to make the educational system to be more vibrant in the quality of its products after several quantity of mass failure and half baked products from our various educational institutions in the country.…

Quality and standards in higher education is a tricky topic, but one that will not go away. Everyone has a view, but it is rarely informed by fact. The subject is particularly difficult for several reasons. Perhaps the most important of these is the lack of any generally agreed definition of what quality and standards are. In this article, the…

Standards-based accountability (SBA) has been a primary driver of education policy in the United States for several decades. Although definitions of SBA vary, it typically includes standards that indicate what students are expected to know and be able to do, measures of student attainment of the standards, targets for performance on those…

In the academic environment the reputation is linked to research performance. However, the questions "what reputation actually is, how it is formed and which are the best ways to measure it?" still remain and they raise tension and confusion between academics. The evaluation methods tend to over emphasise research and fail to address the…

The issue of who has the final say on academic standards (grading), academics or managers, has hitherto not arisen in Greece. Professors entitled to research, to teach and to inquire is a freedom expressed by the Greek Constitution. This article presents a contemporary view and raises concerns about the future and the longevity of academic freedom…