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The Romanian quality legislation is based on ISO 9001 family definition and considers the quality of education as mixed characteristics of a study programme and its supplier through which the expectations of the beneficiaries are met, as well as the quality standards. In 2006, the Education Quality Assurance Law was adopted (L87/2006). The law defined the main quality of education concepts, stating a methodology related to the internal and external assurance of quality, establishing the responsibilities for quality assurance through two national agencies (ARACIS for higher studies and the other – ARACIP for pre-university studies). Also, within the same law the structures which are responsible for quality assurance at a pre-university and university institutions are mentioned – The Evaluation and Quality Assurance Committee.

A downside for national specific standards, augmented by the lack of domain politics is the limited consulting of the interested groups. The authors are sharing the opinion based on which the study of education quality requires the recognition (and taking of the responsibility) of the complex and questionable nature of the cultural, economic, political and even historical implications which are executed on this reality. From this perspective, the school is not only a place where authors are teaching the child to write, read and other knowledge, but also develops his autonomy and forms his personality. Sometimes the school becomes favourable for discrimination and inequality, raising significant barriers in becoming its beneficiary when they present vulnerability. That’s why the school should have the necessary resources to remove economic, social, cultural inequity in order to offer equal chances in learning and development. The education as well as disability are strongly contextualised in the social map of the community. The authors consider the quality in education as being defined by the educational politics which are met with the school practices in the specific context of a community.

The quality as the expression of a politics should become intrinsic to education giving the system processes new connotations. It influences the school processes just as those are developed both strategically, as well as at an educational practices level. At the school institution level it gets redefined, needs to be assumed and supported by all the interested strategic groups involved (institutional and personal accountability). That is why the authors are proposing in this chapter a model of intervention with improving value for the quality management, experienced in 10 schools (five special and five mainstream schools) in an analysis of multiple cases based on quality process deployment.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the system of factors influencing the efficiency of internal evaluation in Polish secondary schools.

Data collected in interviews with evaluation experts and teachers on the barriers to the efficiency of internal evaluation and their causes were subjected to a qualitative cause-and-effect analysis.

Five barriers to the evaluation efficiency (6B model) and five actions of the school head stopping their impact (6A model) were identified. The latter include selecting the key evaluation function (3KEF model) and ensuring the conditions for efficiency in the improvement loop.

Although the research was carried out in Polish schools, the conclusions indicate regularities affecting organizations throughout the world.

Students’ educational needs may exceed the schools’ ability to meet them at class time mostly due to resource constraints. The implementation of the principle of equal opportunities in education requires continuous improvement of the efficiency of schools’ processes. Evaluation can help qualify tasks for improvement.

The level of engagement (reactive/active) of the school principal and teachers in evaluation and improvement is a crucial factor in overcoming the barriers to the efficiency of the school processes.

The ability to respond to the efficiency gaps of the school processes depends on the choice and efficiency of the KEF. The rationale for selecting the function and the schemes for its implementation have paradigmatic grounds.

Addresses the standardization of the measurements and the labels for concepts commonly used in the study of work organizations. As a reference handbook and research tool, seeks to improve measurement in the study of work organizations and to facilitate the teaching of introductory courses in this subject. Focuses solely on work organizations, that is, social systems in which members work for money. Defines measurement and distinguishes four levels: nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio. Selects specific measures on the basis of quality, diversity, simplicity and availability and evaluates each measure for its validity and reliability. Employs a set of 38 concepts ‐ ranging from “absenteeism” to “turnover” as the handbook’s frame of reference. Concludes by reviewing organizational measurement over the past 30 years and recommending future measurement reseach.

THE proposition that British library schools should examine their own students is not a new one. As long ago as 1954, Roy Stokes put the question bluntly to the profession. In those days his was a voice crying in the wilderness. The profession at large was not ready for such a development, and continued to adhere to its long held view that the Library Association should examine the products of the schools, while the schools confined themselves to teaching.

The membership in the European Union (EU) affected price perceptions of citizens in many European countries at the beginning of 2002. How did the transition from the national currency to the Euro, the new single currency of EU, actually take place? Examines the confusion among Finnish consumers concerning internal reference prices in different product and service categories immediately after the transition to the Euro. Proposes tentatively and empirically tests a framework model. Provides the relationships between the paper's key constructs of consumer price perception and some attitudinal and behavioral variables shortly after transition to Euro currency. Basically price perception took place in similar way, when Markka and Euro scales were utilized. This result was shown, first, by analyzing price perception strategies of consumers, and, second, by showing with correlation analysis that as internal reference price increases, the width of price latitude increases, and, third, by modelling reference price perception on the basis of Volkmann's range theory. Money illusion effect was found to exist to some extent.

Looks at the 2000 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference held at the University of Cardiff in Wales on 6/7 September 2000. Spotlights the 76 or so presentations within and shows that these are in many, differing, areas across management research from: retail finance; precarious jobs and decisions; methodological lessons from feminism; call centre experience and disability discrimination. These and all points east and west are covered and laid out in a simple, abstract style, including, where applicable, references, endnotes and bibliography in an easy‐to‐follow manner. Summarizes each paper and also gives conclusions where needed, in a comfortable modern format.

The purpose of this paper is to direct attention to the intersection of external and internal accountability systems within urban schools, and the role of school leadership, especially that of the principal, in managing this intersection. In particular, the paper explores how school leaders are able to strengthen and sustain the school's internal accountability system, in pursuit of school‐defined learning improvement agenda, and at the same time respond productively to external accountability demands. The paper also seeks to identify consequences of these leaders’ efforts to navigate an often problematic set of converging demands.

This paper draws on findings from a larger multi‐case study of learning‐focused leadership in 15 schools in four urban school districts in the USA. Schools were chosen to represent those that were “making progress” (by local measures). Data were collected over 18 months, spanning two school years, from Spring 2007 to Fall 2008. Data collection included multiple site visits, semi‐structured interviews and observations of leadership activity across school and district settings, and a variety of documentary evidence.

Though working in substantially different contexts, these leaders found remarkably similar ways of crafting tools and creating occasions, from the array of external accountability demands and resources, to serve internal accountability purposes. They did so by internalizing external expectations and developing accountable practice within the school, leading through data, and modelling what it meant to learn to lead in a fully accountable way. As they did so, they reshaped the scope of instruction and the instructional improvement conversation, and also made teaching and leadership practice more public.

This paper extends discussions of school‐level accountability in two ways. First, it updates scholarship on accountability by examining school‐level responses at a time five years into the new accountability context in the USA defined by strict system‐wide expectations and mechanisms. Second, the paper demonstrates ways in which the often onerous demands of external accountability systems can be treated as a resource by school leaders and used in ways that bolster the school's capacity for accountable professional practice.

This chapter uses a college-by-graduate degree fixed effects estimator to evaluate the returns to 19 different graduate degrees for men and women. We find substantial variation across degrees, and evidence that OLS overestimates the returns to degrees with the highest average earnings and underestimates the returns to degrees with the lowest average earnings. Second, we decompose the impacts on earnings into effects on wage rates and effects on hours. For most degrees, the earnings gains come from increased wage rates, though hours play an important role in some degrees, such as medicine, especially for women. Third, we estimate the net present value and internal rate of return for each degree, which account for the time and monetary costs of degrees. Finally, we provide descriptive evidence that satisfaction gains are large for some degrees with smaller economic returns, such as education and humanities degrees, especially for men.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a selected bibliography of recent resources on library instruction and information literacy.

The paper introduces and annotates periodical articles, monographs, and audiovisual material examining library instruction and information literacy.

Information is provided about each source, and the paper discusses the characteristics of current scholarship, and describes sources that contain unique scholarly contributions and quality reproductions.

The information may be used by librarians and interested parties as a quick reference to literature on library instruction and information literacy.

Using the backdrop of an (apparently) extended visit to the West Indies, analogies with key concerns of internal audit are drawn. An unusual and refreshing way of exploring the main themes ‐ a discussion between Bill and Jack on tour in the islands ‐ forms the debate. Explores the concepts of control, necessary procedures, fraud and corruption, supporting systems, creativity and chaos, and building a corporate control facility.