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1.
Accountability is an important focus for nearly all-public higher education institutions. In 1997 the Washington State Legislature mandated an accountability measure designed to encourage public universities to increase student efficiency toward graduation. This accountability measure is assessed by a formula called the Graduation Efficiency Index. This qualitative study details the Graduation Efficiency Index's conception and ramifications for public higher education institutions. It further examines university administrators' perceptions of the Graduation Efficiency Index and transfer students' impact on the ability of three public institutions to meet mandated accountability goals. We include implications for practice. Susan Poch is the Director of the Student Advising and Learning Center at Washington State University. She holds a Ph.D. in Education Leadership, Higher Education from Washington StateUniversity. Her research focuses on the policy and practice of student transition. Mimi Wolverton is Professor of Higher Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Her areas of research include leadership, organizational change and organizational effectiveness. She holds an M.B.A. and Ph.D. in Education Leadership from Arizona State University.  相似文献   

2.
This article argues that the individual academic is all but absent from the assumptive worlds of policymakers in UK higher education. It is taken for granted in research on academic identity that those who work in higher education as teachers and researchers refer to themselves as, and indeed are referred to by others as, ‘academics’. Evidence is drawn from a study of policymakers in the UK to demonstrate that the word ‘academic’ is not a part of the lexicon of higher education policymaking. Moreover, the concept of the academic is cast into shade by an overwhelming emphasis on ‘the student experience’, and, from another direction, by a location of professional academic accountability at the level of the higher education institution rather than the individual. The article concludes with an exploration of what work this absence of the academic in policy does in disrupting the possibilities for engagement between the worlds of academia and policymaking and in perpetuating the discourses of marketisation and new management in higher education. It also suggests understanding the assumptive worlds of policymakers is a crucial counterbalance to a growing body of literature on academic responses to change, some of which has tended towards the self‐referential.  相似文献   

3.
Graduation rate is often used as indicator of efficiency and accountability of higher education institutions. However, its official and academic use entails pitfalls, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Based on evidence from Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique, this paper contributes to the academic and policy debate on graduation rates in SSA, by using logistic regression analysis to measure and explain this indicator. The paper’s findings are twofold: (i) graduation rates at UEM (and eventually in SSA) may be different from what their misleading measurement and usage may portray; (ii) graduation rates are particularly affected by the academic aspects of students and the institution. The paper claims that rigor is needed to produce data (e.g. graduation rates) on African universities to strategically inform decision-making.  相似文献   

4.
We estimate the impact of increases in Federal student aid and higher education funding, such as the recently proposed American Graduation Initiative (AGI), on the outcomes of community colleges, including enrollments, list and average tuitions, and educational quality. We develop a reduced form model of state-level education policy in which state policy makers, who have objectives that differ from those of Federal policy makers, respond to changes in Federal policies. Our empirical specification treats state and institutional variables as endogenous; we interpret the coefficients as measuring the responses of state and institution officials to changes in Federal policies. We simulate the effects of AGI and find little evidence that states recapture Federal education resources. AGI would have a significant effect on educational quality but a limited effect on enrollments. An equivalent increase in Federal student aid would have greater impact on access and enrollments, but decrease educational quality.  相似文献   

5.
With the expansion of the higher education system in China since the late 1990s, questions on the distribution of higher education opportunities and resources have attracted increasing attention from academics, policymakers, and the general public. While there have been an increasing studies on the development of higher education opportunity equality in China, quantitative, systematic research on the distribution of higher education resources across China is still rather limited. This paper aims at filling this gap. It provides quantitative and comprehensive evidence on the development of the distribution of higher education resources across Chinese provinces. The analysis is based on a provincial panel dataset and uses a generalized Theil index to measure inequality. Results show that higher education resources have been far from equally provided in relation to the size of provincial student populations in China. The unequal distribution has become even more pronounced over the past decade. In other words, even if high school students have an increasingly equal access to higher education in China (Bickenbach & Liu, 2013b), the increasingly unequal distribution of higher education resources makes it difficult for university students to equally benefit from higher education.  相似文献   

6.
It is conventionally assumed that student ratings perform a significant function in driving improvement in pedagogical practices in higher education. As a result, this form of evaluation has gradually become institutionalised in recent decades as an essential proxy for understanding teaching and course quality in universities across the world. However, with the rise of market-based models in higher education and heightened expectations for accountability mechanisms, the role and functional purpose of ratings-based student evaluation have become increasingly confused. This rising ambiguity has created strong tensions between the seminal drive of student ratings as a tool of quality improvement, and the emerging demands for its use as a transparent accountability measure for the comparative assessment of academic performativity. So are student ratings now largely a tool of quality assurance or performance measurement, or do they remain a legitimate tool for pedagogical improvement? This paper reports on a study that responded to this critical question by considering the contemporary work of student ratings in a major Australian university. The outcomes of this research demonstrate that tension between improvement and accountability motives is causing considerable confusion and discord around the role and value of the student voice. It also reveals that academics are tending to discount the often critical insights of students on the implications of their pedagogical practices as a result of the elevating institutional role of student ratings as a proxy for teaching quality. In considering these outcomes, rising levels of academic dissonance around student ratings would suggest a necessity to consider broadened evaluative strategies that are able to more effectively capture the improvement potential offered by the student voice.  相似文献   

7.
Within the education sector, accountability regulations have been used with the intended purpose of improving student outcomes. In higher education, one such regulation aims to improve the ability of borrowers to repay their student loans by placing sanctions on institutions with excessive student loan defaults. This paper examines whether student loan accountability regulations were able to (1) lower student loan defaults, and (2) address the broader objective of improving repayment ability, by exploiting a change to the period in which the regulation’s performance measure was monitored. I find that the change to the regulation resulted in less student loan defaults at for-profit colleges. I also find that this reduction in student loan defaults resulted in a short-term improvement in repayment ability at for-profit, but not nonprofit, institutions.  相似文献   

8.
Student learning outcomes assessment has been increasingly used in U.S. higher education institutions over the last 10 years, partly fueled by the recommendation from the Spellings Commission that institutions need to demonstrate more direct evidence of student learning. To respond to the Commission's call, various accountability initiatives have been launched, profoundly reshaping how assessment has been viewed, implemented, and used in higher education. This article reviews the conceptual and methodological challenges of the assessment agenda for one of the landmark accountability initiatives, the Voluntary System of Accountability, and also documents the notable shift from a strong focus on accountability to an increasing emphasis on internal improvement. This article then discusses the most recent developments in assessment approaches and tools, and proposes a four‐element, one‐enabler assessment cycle for institutions to maximally benefit from their assessment efforts.  相似文献   

9.
Standards-based accountability approaches in education are increasingly being adopted in many industrialised countries. This tends to involve the scrutiny of student performance in national academic tests and then holding schools accountable for subsequent progress. International assessments such as Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) are not accountability measures in themselves, but are often utilised in a similar way and national policies are judged against performance in these tests. Drawing upon the examples of PISA and national assessments in the USA, this paper explores how students with special educational needs and disability (SEND) are included in, and served by, these assessment policies. The analysis suggests that while these approaches are inclusive in their intent (most obviously through efforts to include students with SEND in testing) they may poorly represent the progress of these students. It is argued that more equitable inclusion of students with SEND must find a balance between accountability measures which measure performance in traditional attainment-focused tests and other relevant assessments which are meaningful to the given student and/or SEND sub-group.  相似文献   

10.
Throughout the world, pressure on resources and emphasis on greater accountability has resulted in higher education institutions' making efforts to define their objectives and to measure their success in achieving them. This paper describes research carried out into this subject in a number of Middle Eastern universities. The methodology employed was based on previous U.S. studies but modified to fit the Middle Eastern context. The results showed that there were significant differences in the ranking of objectives between different universities although not between different academic constituencies. Another important result of the study was the apparently poor performance on highly rated objectives of student intellectual development and progress in research.  相似文献   

11.
This article opens with an overview of the pressures that have led to heightened calls for accountability in higher education, both in the US and Europe. Noting that doctoral programmes have, to date, drawn minimal attention in the accountability debates, the authors note that these programmes cannot stay forever on the sidelines. Drawing on their knowledge of the American context in particular, the authors go on to outline current efforts to assess the quality of doctoral programmes in the US with attention to how these efforts respond to accountability demands. They urge the higher education community to re-shape the accountability discussion, shifting its centre from government to higher education and the institutions training doctoral students who will become faculty. Crucially, they argue that graduate programmes should train doctoral students to undertake and use discipline-appropriate assessment measurement and scholarship as part of their future work as college and university instructors. If doctoral students emerge as faculty with an understanding of how to conduct assessments for the purpose of improving student learning, they will advance not only their fields, but higher education more generally.  相似文献   

12.
External quality audits are now being used in universities across the world to improve quality assurance, accountability for quality education and transparency of public funding of higher education. Some countries such as Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Sweden and Denmark have had external quality audits for more than a decade but there has been limited research as to their impact. This study analyses the extent to which external audits in Australia have improved quality assurance in universities over the past 10 years. The analysis is based on discussions with 40 participants in a workshop on the effectiveness of audits and the review of 60 external quality audit reports between 2001 and December 2010. The research found that while external audits have led to an improvement in systems and processes in Australian universities, they have not necessarily improved the student experience. This lack of impact on the student experience in Australia is similar to other countries, according to the literature review. This study is timely in its analysis on the effectiveness of the current improvement-led audits, as government in Australia is in the process of renewing quality assurance arrangements of higher education institutions with a focus on standards and outcomes.  相似文献   

13.
充分挖掘大学生档案管理中的德育资源   总被引:3,自引:0,他引:3  
大学生档案管理是一个不可多得的德育资源,对大学生优良品格的养成具有不可估量的作用。但目前的大学生档案在管理、信誉和重视程度三之间未形成良性循环而未能充分发挥其德育功能。故望各有关人士充分认识到改革档案管理工作的重要性和迫切性,以便使极为丰富的德育资源得以充分发挥作用。  相似文献   

14.
Recent test‐based accountability policy in the U.S. has involved annually assessing all students in core subjects and holding schools accountable for adequate progress of all students by implementing sanctions when adequate progress is not met. Despite its potential benefits, basing educational policy on assessments developed for a student population of White, middle‐ and upper‐class, and native speakers of English opens the door for numerous pitfalls when the assessments are applied to minority populations including students of color, low SES, and learning English as a new language. There exists a paradox; while minority students are a primary intended beneficiary of the test‐based accountability policy, the assessments used in the policy have been shown to have many shortcomings when applied to these students. This article weighs the benefits and pitfalls that test‐based accountability brings for minority students. Resolutions to the pitfalls are discussed, and areas for future research are recommended. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 6–24, 2010  相似文献   

15.
Higher education institutions are becoming increasingly accountable to stakeholders at many levels as the federal government, accrediting organizations, and the public place a stronger emphasis on student learning outcomes. Evidence of student learning that is comparable across institutions is of urgent demand. Various accountability initiatives such as the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA) mark a milestone in the evaluation of instructional effectiveness of higher education using standardized outcomes assessment. Although the current accountability initiatives hold great potential in evaluating institutional effectiveness, some design and methodological issues need to be addressed before outcomes assessment can be best utilized. In this paper, I (a) review the need for outcomes assessment in higher education, (b) discuss the VSA initiative, (c) summarize the most prominent challenges facing outcomes assessment for accountability purposes, and (d) discuss future directions of research in advancing accountability assessment in higher education.  相似文献   

16.
Abstract

Recent studies of academic work have identified increasing pressures on universities and academics throughout the world. These pressures relate to such factors as diminishing resources available to the higher education sector, widening diversity of the student clientele, moves for increased accountability and tensions between the research and teaching goals of academic work. Among the pressures being placed on the teaching component of academic work are the need for increased accountability of teaching performance and the need to update professional competence related to teaching. This paper reports a study of a selected group of academics — relatively junior staff who have participated in significant professional development activities related to their teaching. The data provided by the interviews with these academics allow a glimpse at their academic lives and how they fit teaching and professional development related to teaching into their working lives. The study highlights how these academics structure their work around their teaching commitments and how, although they make time available for professional development related to their teaching, this is done in response to the activities offered rather than as a proactive component of their career planning.  相似文献   

17.
Assessment in higher education serves multiple purposes such as providing information about student learning, student progress, teaching quality, and program and institutional accountability. Yet, little is known about faculty and students’ attitudes regarding different aspects of assessment that have wide-ranging implications for policy and practice in tertiary institutions. To investigate these views, parallel surveys of conceptions of assessment were administered to faculty and undergraduate students across four tertiary institutions including universities, an indigenous tertiary institution, and an institute of technology. A mean and covariance structures approach was used to test for measurement invariance and latent means differences between faculty and students regarding their conceptions of assessment. Results revealed differences in the latent means across the two groups. Faculty were likely to view assessment as a trustworthy process aiding teaching and learning, whereas students viewed assessment as focussed primarily on accountability and perceived assessment as irrelevant or even ignored in the teaching and learning process. These findings highlight the importance of ensuring that assessment policy and practices are fit for purposes, and are being carried out with integrity in ways that are transparent to and understood by both staff and students. While these results show how staff and students view assessment practices, one should keep in mind that while the sample was large and did incorporate different types of tertiary institutions, the inclusion of a broader range of disciplines would make the conclusions more generalizable.  相似文献   

18.
学生学习结果评价是美国高等教育评价由关注资源输入到全面注重受教育者学习结果的一次转变。它侧重评价学生学习后所获得的各方面知识、能力和品质。该评价成为一场运动的主要原因是培养高技能劳动力的需求、政府问责的加强以及认证组织的推动。学生学习结果评价的实施在政府、高校以及专业、课堂等众多层面展开,并表现出以学生为中心的价值取向、评价参与者广泛以及评价方法灵活多样等特点。  相似文献   

19.
Since 2001, considerations of school reform have been dominated by performance-based accountability. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has changed the way policymakers and educators talk about education, look at educational performance, and think about educational challenges. Nonetheless, NCLB and the state accountability systems it has spawned have been subjected to little careful scrutiny. This article discusses four recent research contributions and considers how they might inform policymaking on accountability. While scholarly scrutiny will not necessarily settle debates, it can help yield more constructive and informed decisions. In particular, research can clarify the actual consequences of policy decisions; highlight and refine approaches that may be more reliable, stable, and effective than those in use; flag the unanticipated or overlooked effects of design decisions; and ensure that both policymakers and the public are aware of the costs and benefits of accountability.  相似文献   

20.
International student assessments have become the ‘lifeblood’ of the accountability movement in educational policy contexts. Drawing upon Stuart Hall’s concept of representation, I critically examined who comprises epistemic communities responsible for developing the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes economics strand. Through my analysis, I identify homogeneity among test-makers, missing voices, and western concepts as represented ideas that become fixed and circulated through policy channels. In an era of accountability and comparison, comparative international student assessments are becoming increasingly normative in educational settings. As scholars, policymakers, and educators use these test results, we must critically examine who is responsible for producing these tests.  相似文献   

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