Surveys and benchmarks continue to grow in importance for community colleges in response to several factors. One is the press for accountability, that is, for colleges to report the outcomes of their programs and services to demonstrate their quality and prudent use of resources, primarily to external constituents and governing boards at the state…

This chapter presents an overview of approaches to assessing critical thinking in community colleges, a brief description of standardized tests, and examples of several institutionally developed methodologies and good practices. Finally, it identifies challenges in assessing critical thinking in two-year colleges. (Contains 1 table.)

During the spring semesters of 1999 through 2003, the general education subcommittee of Oakton Community College's (Des Plaines, Illinois) Student Academic Assessment Team (SAAT) implemented a locally developed institutional approach for assessing students' achievement of general education objectives. The overall process remained essentially the…