Outcome-based Quality Evaluation Policy of the US Department of Education Higher Education Program:

A Study in the 1980s and 1990s

Abstract

When Margaret Spellings, Education Secretary between 2005 and 2009, failed to implement her policy on outcome-based quality evaluation, higher education critics and researchers said that Spellings’ era was just a phase. This study investigates statements and remarks of the secretaries and major Department of Education staff, as well as reports from federal committees, in the 1980s and 1990s regarding elements such as objectives , units, and reference standards of assessment and evaluation of learning outcomes. The analysis revealed that the Department’s policy on outcome-based quality evaluation between the 1980s and 1990s was fairly consistent with its policy in the 2000s in terms of the same three elements. Therefore, Spellings’ era should be regarded neither as an isolated event nor a political failure. Rather, it should be noted that it was a part of events emerging from the Department of Education’s continuous search for the establishment of outcome-based quality evaluation in higher education.