EDUCATIONAL QUALITY

www.nces.ed.gov
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education in the United States and other nations. The NCES fulfills a congressional mandate to collect, collate, analyze and report complete statistics on the condition of American education, conduct and publish reports, and review and report on education activities internationally. Many full reports and research studies are free to view.

www.aqip.org
The Academic Quality Improvement Program (AQIP) is an organization with criteria for excellence in colleges and universities. While there is a fee for accreditation, AQIP's website offers plenty of free information, including the complete criteria in HTML format and PDF, tips on self-assessments, a comparison between AQIP and Baldrige criteria and a directory of accredited institutions. Quality professionals can apply online to be volunteer advisors, appraisers and facilitators.  

www.edexcellence.net
The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation promotes excellence in elementary and secondary education and improvements in teacher quality. The site describes the work of the foundation, its grant process and available publications. It also lists books on the subject.

www.ncacihe.org
The North Central Association Commission on Institutions of Higher Education accredits colleges, universities and other degree granting institutions of higher education. It also works with state, federal and nongovernmental Baldrige, ISO 9000 and similar quality programs to share in the evaluation of institutions. A section of its site deals with the Educational Quality Improvement Model for regional higher education accreditation, which includes total quality management, ISO 9000 and Baldrige criteria.

www.wmich.edu/evalctr/jc/JC-Home.htm
The Joint Committee on Standards for Educational Evaluation has developed three standards, each dealing with a different element of educational evaluation. One standard suggests guidelines for developing and improving student evaluations, one applies to program evaluations and the third applies to personnel evaluations. While the full standards must be purchased from their publisher, useful summaries of all three are available on this website.

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