Accreditation and licensure standards must shift radically to accommodate the use of new distance learning technologies. Furthermore, the movement from teacher-centered to learner-centered environments results in the need for the accreditation and licensure paradigms to be reevaluated in order to remain relevant; carry out their original functions…

The principal goals of the State University of New York (SUNY) Brockport's large-scale writing assessment are to determine if a writing program actually helps students to write better and, if so, whether that growth can be measured during the college years. Portfolio assessment has become an attractive alternative to single-test essay at SUNY…

In recent years, community colleges have developed innovative assessment programs to respond to more explicit state guidelines and mandates for greater accountability. In California, for example, the State Assembly began requiring community colleges to address specific educational and fiscal performance issues in assessments in 1989, while…

This digest discusses the development and implementation of performance indicators in higher education, focusing on the factors driving increased demand for accountability in higher education and the use of performance indicators. It discusses the public and political concern for increased emphasis on undergraduate education, productivity,…

This digest reviews writing assessment--what it means and how it works--at a selected number of colleges and universities in the United States. The digest discusses outcomes assessment, placement testing, placement and the writing process, and end-of-course evaluation. The digest concludes with a brief reminder for college-bound students of what…

This annual bibliography presents the abstracts, index terms, and descriptive bibliographic information for selected books, journal articles, and other documents in subject areas concerning college outcomes and assessment. Citations are listed alphabetically by author. The coverage and size of the four editions combined here are as follows: (1)…

Community colleges generally conduct little research. Further, there is no generally accepted national research agenda for community colleges, no consistently funded national agency charged with studying the institutions as unique entities, and few educational researchers directing their attention toward them. The research that is undertaken on…

This review of the literature considers three issues: how out-of-class experiences of undergraduates contribute to the goals of higher education and valued outcomes; the institutional conditions that encourage students to use out-of-class time in educationally purposeful ways; and the role of all members of the campus community to foster such…

Dealing with issues related to the assessment of community college accountability, effectiveness, efficiency, productivity, student outcomes, and quality improvement, this volume examines the practical considerations of assessment from the perspectives of state-level coordinating boards, accreditation agencies, college presidents, and…

This report examines the development and implementation of performance indicators in higher education, focusing on the factors driving increased demand for accountability in higher education and the use of performance indicators in the United States and other countries. It discusses the public and political concern for increased productivity,…

As a result of increasing pressure from external constituencies, community colleges have been called upon to demonstrate accountability through assessment activities and research on institutional effectiveness based on student outcomes. Since community colleges include transient student populations, students with a wide range of ability and…

This digest discusses the use of benchmarking as a strategy for assessing and improving efficiency and productivity of administrative processes and instructional models in colleges and universities. Benchmarking, developed by the Xerox Corporation in the 1980s, is defined as an ongoing, systematic process for measuring and comparing the work…

Many colleges and universities, in responding to public demand for higher education and the external challenges it creates, are employing Total Quality Management (TQM) techniques to improve quality, increase productivity, and decrease costs. The quality improvement process itself (the tools for problem identification and developing solutions),…

Intended as a forum for the discussion of postsecondary accreditation, this book addresses pragmatic issues such as constituent satisfaction, cost, and redundant efforts, as well as such strategic concerns as accreditation's potential to provide leadership in the areas of transfer, articulation, and general education. The following 10 chapters are…

With the growing demand for accountability by legislators, outcomes assessment has become a much higher institutional priority for community colleges. According to a recent survey, two-thirds of the states have implemented formal assessment initiatives, compared to a very few states only 1 year earlier. Institutions, however, must be careful that…