Charter Theatre is a small professional theatre in Washington, DC. Its mission is to develop and produce new plays. Like other organizations, Charter Theatre wants to be accountable. Its members saw early the need for evaluation--a repeatable process to assure the quality of their work, and have infused their development process with evaluation.…

Spanish River High School is one of 40 U.S. History Schools and 21 affiliates around the country that get resources and academic support from the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. The schools require participating students to take a U.S. history course each year, in addition to any requisites in world history and other subjects. The…

This chapter describes the development of a state-level student tracking system that enables the state and institutions to follow various cohort types of students across institutional boundaries. The system was developed by the Policy Research and Data Warehousing section of the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV). SCHEV is the…

The scope of Title IX clearly includes all aspects of education, but the legislation's application to college athletics receives the most attention. Athletics programs, unlike most academic activities, are sex segregated, so the proper interpretation of the intercollegiate athletics provisions of Title IX is less clear-cut. This article examines…

In its most basic form, strategic planning is a process of anticipating change, identifying new opportunities, and executing strategy. The use of mixed methods, blending quantitative and qualitative analytical techniques and data, in the process of assembling a strategic plan can help to ensure a successful outcome. In this article, the author…

In January 2005, AAPAR was born from the American Association for Active Lifestyles and Fitness (AAALF) and the American Association for Leisure and Recreation (AALR), thus providing a home for special-interest subjects that do not fit neatly into the other units of the Alliance. This article includes a brief history of AAPAR with a focus on its…

This ethnographic study of "goal displacement" in an adult day care center explains how and why certain goals come to surpass others in the organizational practices of elder day care settings. Adult day care is often oriented towards providing family caregivers with respite rather than attempting to directly improve the lives of the elders…

Enrollment management is a major component within the organizational structure of most four-year universities today. However, this is not necessarily the case with community colleges. With the continual decrease in public funding and increased competition with private colleges and universities, public community colleges are now being forced to…

This document is intended for leaders and decision makers who work with community colleges at the classroom, college, and system level. Readers will find an overview of the purpose, activities, findings, and recommendations from a three-year project involving 11 California community colleges, undertaken as a partnership between The Carnegie…

This report is a summary of projects and activities completed by the British Columbia Council on Admissions and Transfer (BCCAT) during the period April 1, 2006 to March 31, 2007. Its purpose is to inform the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) of the steps taken in British Columbia to improve student mobility and credit transfer in…

Many out-of-school time programs conduct evaluations. As part of an evaluation, program participants (including children, their parents, and program staff) may be asked to provide information. Researchers refer to these individuals as "human subjects," and it is essential to protect their privacy, rights, confidentiality, and privileges.…

In this study, the authors analyze the 2003 Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Freshman Survey to investigate whether freshmen who intend to study abroad express a history of active involvement. The CIRP Freshman Survey has a number of items indicating student involvement and participation. The authors created six scales based on…

As the borders between higher education systems continue to erode and competition for qualified students increases, many institutions are exploring variable pricing options, known in the USA as "tuition discounting." The goal of tuition discounting is to use institutional funds to attract and retain desired students while maximizing net…

Purpose: The aim of this study is to show that it is not necessary to use one of the current models of quality management. Self-evaluation is to be considered as an essential practice for further education providers willing to improve their quality. The study aims to propose a quality framework with field-related criteria.…

The portrait of the American college senior is a mix of economic pressures and shifting choices. Understanding that the senior year represents another critical transition point for college students, many U.S. colleges and universities are taking intentional steps to help students bring closure to their collegiate experience and accomplish the…