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It is important for students who plan to work in the fashion industry to understand fast-fashion and its implications. A constructivist approach to teaching where an instructor starts with students' experiences has been useful to teach fashion subjects. The purposes of this paper were to: 1) present and assess a teaching activity guided by constructivist theory where students were required to analyze quality of a garment made pre and another made post fast fashion, and 2) compare and contrast knowledge of fast fashion and quality among students given their rural versus urban experiences. Two textiles classes in rural (n= 37) and urban (n= 32) regions of the United States completed the fast fashion activity. Results from the assessment surveys suggested the activity provided “first hand” experiences with apparel quality and fast fashion. Furthermore, rural and urban students differed in perceptions and understanding of fast fashion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Assessing student learning in ways that offer students, institutions and systems with sound information is a considerable challenge for higher education. Despite demonstrable progress, a disconnect remains between methods used for assessing learning, improvement and accountability. This muddled situation is illustrated through a review of contemporary practice in the USA, Canada, Australia, the UK and New Zealand. To advance research and practice, this paper contributes a structured set of criteria that practitioners can use to evaluate whether an assessment functions effectively across different levels of practice. These technical and practical criteria touch on issues such as sampling, the viability of aggregation, reporting and cost-benefit considerations. The paper tests these criteria by considering their capacity to drive multi-level improvement in education quality. It is contended that the criteria provide perspective and structure for reconciling the quantitative assessment of higher education quality at different levels of practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first part of this article discusses the effort made by each state to provide the opportunity of a college education for its residents. Based on the per cent of the college age population that study at an institution of higher learning within their state, Utah, Arizona, North Dakota, Kansas, and Montana rank as the national leaders. The second section develops a number of criteria which are used to rank graduate schools in the United States. A separate ranking is presented for the science and the social science-humanities fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]