Assessing Student Learning: It's Not Just for Middle States Anymore - Ann Damiano

Higher education is becoming a different sort of institution from the one many of us knew in our salad days.  Students and teachers continue to engage in spirited discussions, explore scientific possibilities, critique works of art, conduct stimulating research, and produce inspired theatrical and musical performances.  But they aren’t doing any of this in an insulated ivory tower. 

Years of escalating tuition costs—combined with parental concerns about their children’s marketability and complaints from employers that the college graduates they hired lacked competent writing and problem-solving abilities—has resulted in demands for greater accountability from colleges and universities.   

The comprehensive Spellings Commission report, A Test of Leadership:  Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education (2006), asserts, “As other nations rapidly improve their higher education systems, we are disturbed by evidence that the quality of student learning at U.S. colleges and universities is inadequate and, in some cases, declining” (3).  In order for parents and students—i.e. consumers—to make educated choices about which college to attend, the Spellings Commission recommended that colleges report the “value-added” provided by their institutions (4).  Some institutions already share the results of standardized assessments on public online databases (Kelly and Aldeman 1,3), and in a recent  article in The Chronicle of Higher Education, David Glenn reports that by 2012, over 100 colleges will post their results from the Collegiate Learning Assessment on a public website dedicated to accountability in higher education .    

The August 2008 Higher Education Act, perhaps the most intrusive set of mandates to be imposed on post-secondary institutions, authorizes the U.S. Department of Education to publish information about every school that benefits from  Title IV programs.  Such information includes, but is not limited to, institutional missions, SAT/ACT scores, demographic characteristics of students, and degree completion rates (ACE Analysis of Higher Education Act Reauthorization, 2).  In some circles, talk is heard about the possibility of national standards, or, at the very least, requiring institutions to use a standardized assessment to measure student learning. For over a decade, accrediting agencies and the Council for Independent Colleges and Universities implored institutions of higher education to determine student learning outcomes and assess, assess and assess—before a government agency mandates what college students must learn and how their learning will be measured.  This sort of regulation may be closer than we imagine: the Higher Education Act has authorized the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences to “conduct a study of federal regulation of higher education” (9, emphasis added).   

Faculty at LVC, under the skilled leadership of Deanna Dodson, are to be commended for their efforts at identifying student learning outcomes, generating plans for assessing these outcomes, carefully reporting the results of their assessments, and using these results to improve the teaching/learning experience for undergraduate students.  Throughout this academic year, I will be asking to meet with the various departments to discuss additional evidence we might gather to show that an LVC education adds value to students’ lives, enriching them intellectually and artistically and developing in them essential, transferable competencies.  

And yes, I will be contacting you shortly for your assessment plans and reports, which will be reviewed by the Faculty Assessment Committee.  

I am delighted to be part of the LVC community and look forward to facing the challenges of the 21st century with you:  demonstrating accountability and affirming the very fine work of an outstanding, qualified faculty dedicated to the pursuit of learning and student accomplishment.  
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“ACE Analysis of Higher Education Act Reauthorization.” American Council of Education, 2008 – 2009.  25 Jan.2010.     <http://www.niu.edu/u_council/attachments/2008-2009/ACEAnalaysis.html.

Glenn, David. “A Measure of Education is Put to the Test.” Chronicle of Higher Education. 19 Sept. 2010.<http://chronicle.com/article/A-Measure-of-Learning-Is-Put/ 124519/?sid= at&utm_source= at&utm_ medium=en>.

Kelly, Andrew P., and Chad Aldeman.  “False Fronts? Behind Higher Education’s Voluntary Accountability Systems.” Education Sector (March 2010).

United States Dept. of Education. A Test of Leadership:  Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education.       www.ed. gov., 2006.