This book explores some of the central issues in the definition and evaluation of excellence and quality in education. Using comparative and international methodology, the contributors from around the world highlight and discuss some of the key factors of the quality debate at national, institutional and classroom levels. Excellence and Quality in Education offers an invaluable insight into the current polemics surrounding the technocratic push for quality in education.

Quality Assurance is not a new concept in the education sector in general, and higher education in particular, though it is becoming increasingly more relevant and important. Higher education helps to improve an individual's quality of life by enabling them to inflate their knowledge and expertise, to grasp abstract concepts and theories, and to raise their awareness of the world and their community, and as such the assurance of quality is becoming more pivotal in the whole education process. There is no simple definition of the concept of quality in education, though numerous models and theories have been devised. Toward Quality Assurance and Excellence of Higher Education is a new episode of the Quality Assurance perception in higher education, which identifies the quality culture and orientation from the beginning, integrating crucial factors to build a “pyramid” of higher education excellence. The book compares concepts from the main theories of Quality Assurance, management and control when they are applied to educational systems in higher education. The book also presents a new model of excellence in higher education. Excellence is an architecture of building blocks that includes process performance, effectiveness, harmony and collaboration, and these bocks should be incorporated in a quality-oriented concept for sustainable excellence of higher education. The model integrates four main facets: the Educational System, Quality Assurance Managing and Control, Strategic Planning and Globalization. Also presented are international “best-practices” in quality assurance in higher education, from Japan and Finland.

This publication identifies some of the steps policy makers can take to build school systems that are both equitable and excellent. The analysis is complemented with examples that illustrate proven or promising practices in specific countries.

The author gives us a vision of educational reform that transcends standards, curriculum, and instructional strategies. He argues for a paradigm shift-a schoolwide embrace of an "ethic of excellence" and with a passion for quality describes what's possible when teachers, students, and parents commit to nothing less than the best. The author tells exactly how this can be done, from the blackboard to the blacktop to the school boardroom.

"In 1987, the U.S. Congress established the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award program to raise awareness about the importance of quality and performance excellence as a competitive edge. Since 1999, the program has outlined criteria for educational institutions to align their mission, values, goals, processes, and resources into a comprehensive, long-term, systematic improvement effort. The book profiles six unique institutions that have successfully implemented these criteria: the Montfort College of Business at the University of Northern Colorado, National University, New Mexico State University-Carlsbad, Northwest Missouri State University, University of Wisconsin-Stout, and Western Wisconsin Technical College. The University of Wisconsin-Stout was the first higher education institution to win the Baldrige Award in 2001, and has since worked with educational institutions in 39 states and 25 countries that are interested in implementing quality improvement through the application of the Baldrige criteria. This book will appeal to academic administrators at all levels and at all types of institutions who are interested in applying a systematic approach to leadership, quality improvement, and change management within their institutions"--Unedited summary from book cover.

This open access book examines the interrelationship of national policy, teacher effectiveness, and student outcomes with a specific emphasis on educational equity. Using data from the IEA’s Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) conducted between 1995 and 2015, it investigates grade four and grade eight data to assess trends in key teacher characteristics (experience, education, preparedness, and professional development) and teacher behaviors (instructional time and instructional content), and how these relate to student outcomes. Taking advantage of national curriculum data collected by TIMSS to assess changes in curricular strategy across countries and how these may be related to changes in teacher and student factors, the study focuses on the distributional impact of curriculum and instruction on students, paying particular attention to overall inequalities and variations in socioeconomic status at the student and country level, and how such factors have altered over time. Multiple methods, including regression and fixed effects analyses, and structural equation modelling, establish the evolution of these associations over time.

If the quality of an education system can never exceed the quality of its teachers, then countries need to do all they can to build a high-quality teaching force.