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In this study, we investigate the growth trajectory of 519 students in a vocational senior high school in Taiwan. The group-based trajectory model identifies 3 subgroups with distinct trajectories of academic achievement in Math and English. This study reveals baseline predictive factors associated with these trajectories as well as relationships between different trajectories and students' college entrance examination scores. Our analysis contributes to the literature in two ways. First, this study shows that when school practices focus on improving the performance of students in the low achievement group, the performance of those in the middle is sacrificed. Second, upon their enrollment, students in the low achievement group appear to have significantly lower academic preparation and educational aspirations.

Post-secondary education institutions in Taiwan are divided into two tracks, general higher education (HE) and technological and vocational education (TVE). The evaluation of all universities/colleges is mandated by the University Act. Higher education institutions receive mandated institutional evaluation every six years and program evaluation every five years. The purpose of this paper is to briefly introduce the status of higher education institutional and program evaluations in Taiwan as well as the emerging roles of the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT). Both institutional and program evaluations are accreditation-oriented, adopting the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) cycle with an emphasis on institutional and program self-positioning, student learning outcome, and mechanism for continuous improvement. As the third-party planner and implementer of higher education institutional and program evaluations, HEEACT has conducted internal and external assessments as well as entrusted third-party meta-evaluation to assure its quality of work. Faced with the emerging challenges, such as the Ministry of Education's new policy on requiring some universities/colleges to implement self-conducted external evaluation in replacement of the third-party program evaluation, HEEACT has to alter its roles and becomes a Critical Friend of higher education institutions and programs, a Change Agent of higher education institutional and program evaluation, and an Effective Facilitator of the international exchanges and cooperation on quality assurance and mutual recognitions of national qualifications. (Contains 3 figures.)

This paper examines the expansion of higher education in Taiwan from 1950 to 1994, looking first at the patterns of the expansion and, secondly, attempting to account for these patterns. Higher education in Taiwan is defined as general universities and colleges, institutes of technology, and junior colleges with governance of the system under the control of the Ministry of Education. The study reviewed major historical events and examined documents and the literature concerning patterns of expansion in the number of institutions, in the number of students enrolled, and in expenditures. The study then reviewed the state's stated reasons--economic concerns, educational quality, social demands, and equal distribution of resources--for regulating expansion of higher education, and compared these reasons with other models of educational expansion and with the actual results achieved. The paper concludes by taking issue with the state's official position and suggests that the primary reason for its controlling growth was to keep unemployment rates among college graduates low. Further studies to examine educational policy making and educational supply and demand models are suggested. Appendices illustrate the structure of the Taiwan school system, list historical events related to higher educational expansion, list official documents reviewed, and provide graphical displays of trend data. (Contains approximately 100 references.) (CH)