This report from JFF with a select group of community college practitioners, makes the case for policymakers, employers and practitioners to invest in and strengthen short-term credentialing programs to rapidly retrain unemployed workers for better career prospects, especially workers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes key commitments…

Community colleges serve more students than any other institutional type in the United States, and internationalization is an inherent component of community colleges that advances student knowledge, facilitates student success, and serves the needs of local communities. As most community college students do not enroll in four-year institutions,…

Asking college students how much they have learned or grown is a common assessment practice in student affairs and elsewhere. Unfortunately, recent research suggests that these self-reported gains do a very poor job of measuring actual student learning and growth. This paper provides an overview of the psychological process of how students likely…

A study of 21 flagship public universities and four entire state systems (in Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia), conducted by the authors, demonstrates that if this country is to regain its leadership in higher education, it must fix two interwoven problems: (1) the stagnant level of overall educational attainment, as measured by…

"Assessment on college campuses has a sordid history, and it is fairly simple to find someone with a traumatic tale to tell. It is wise to respect that that reputation is deserved." "How do you modify the inner workings and culture of a massive institution with minimal resources and even less authority (other than GE course…

In 2006, Educational Testing Service (ETS) made a commitment to the higher education community to provide information that would help inform the national dialogue on accountability in higher education. This report "A Culture of Evidence: Critical Features of Assessments for Postsecondary Student Learning" (also referred to as "COE…

A "formal information inventory" survey method was used to help educate a university campus about outcomes assessment while identifying assessment activities already being undertaken. The survey was sent to 102 individuals identified as being responsible for, or having knowledge of, any assessment activities within a department or area,…

This book is intended to provide college administrators, faculty, and researchers with a guide to resources concerned with assessment at the postsecondary level. After a foreword by Margaret A. Miller, president of the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE), an introduction by Barbara L. Cambridge examines the different ways that current…

Results of two empirical studies of factors affecting academic quality give insight into ways in which educational costs, quality factors, and institutional structure increase or restrict productivity. It is found that evaluation of academic productivity is complex because of difficulties in determining inputs and outputs. Useful improvement…

Assessment, with a capital "A", has become in the academy a politically loaded buzzword that closes many more doors than it opens. Assessment, with a small "a", however, is a necessary part of any attempt to find the best path forward in environments that change. At meetings this spring, Members of NERCHE's Departments Chairs…

A discussion of institutional and program evaluation in higher education focuses on the need for congruence between the purposes of the assessment and the procedures used to accomplish it. The factors relating to success in evaluation are examined, with special attention given to those that promote improvement. (Author/MSE)

Ohio University's experience with assessment has had two phases: the first was devoted to providing university-wide assessment information to faculty and staff; the second to supporting individual academic units' needs for assessment information. While assessment is a tool used by the university to refocus its publicly perceived primary mission of…

Five categories of student outcomes in graduate and professional education are identified: timely degree completion; knowledge of the discipline; preparedness for professional practice; preparation for research and inquiry; preparation for teaching. A framework for assessing each is offered and various methods for collecting data on student…

Multiple program impact analysis was used to evaluate the overall effectiveness in programs for 11,766 first-year students at the University of Texas at Austin. The technique examines the relationship between involvement in multiple educational programs and selected educational outcomes. Among findings was that participation in more than one…

Analyzes approaches to institutional assessment currently in use, including locally developed achievement measures, external expert evaluation, self-reported data collection, nationally standardized achievement test, persistence studies, and portfolio analysis. (DMM)