Educational quality

Educational quality is the achievement and maintenance of standards in education, at the level of the teacher student interaction, the school and of local and national education services. Educational accreditation is a type of quality assurance process under which services and operations of an educational institution or program are evaluated by an external body to determine if applicable standards are met. If standards are met, accredited status is granted by the agency.

In most countries in the world, the function of educational accreditation is conducted by a government organization, such as a ministry of education. In the United States, however, the quality assurance process is independent of government and performed by private membership associations.

Evaluation at the service level
The process of quality control of overall service delivery involves the formulation of clear educational objectives and the subsequent educational measurement of performance against those objectives. For example the Education Quality and Accountability Office of Ontario, Canada has a clear mandate to develop and evaluate the results of educational measures and to improve the literacy and educational attainment level of students.

Program evaluation
Educational quality of individual educational programs should be a standard part of their oversight and management, with systems of Educational program accreditation and educational program evaluation and course evaluation put in place from the outset.

Teacher performance
Individual teacher performance is an aspect of school management. Many jurisdictions have estaablished systems of accreditation for education personnel and teacher effectiveness evaluation.