This chapter provides a big-picture view of the postgraduate outcomes landscape. In an effort to promote understanding and to communicate the value of a higher education credential to various stakeholders, five national efforts are described, each of which provides a different perspective for defining, measuring, and collecting postgraduate…

Supported by emerging research and practice, this chapter provides a comprehensive conceptual framework for first-year assessment.

The need for educational programs to show their return on investment is exemplified in the intense debate surrounding gainful employment programs--defined as programs that lead to gainful employment in a recognized occupation and theoretically differ from programs that offer education in the liberal arts or prepare students for further education.…

In this chapter, the authors discuss the issue of research design in conducting inquiry on college impact and demonstrate the importance of longitudinal pretest-posttest designs in maximizing the internal validity of findings. They begin by discussing the strengths and weaknesses of different types of research design in the college impact…

Underrepresented racial minorities (URMs) earn college degrees in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields at lower rates than do their majority peers. The term "underrepresented minority" refers to Black, Latina/o, Native American, and Southeast Asian American (Cambodian, Hmong, Lao, and Vietnamese) students. Statistics…

The authors examine the importance of character development in higher education today and the challenges of assessing this complex educational outcome.

The condition of higher education is an important indicator of a nation's competitiveness in the modern knowledge-based world economy. Higher education builds up a nation's human resources by equipping students with advanced knowledge, professional skills, and critical and creative thinking ability. Higher education institutions are significant,…

Discusses how diversity of mission, student intent, and student demographics should influence state- and institution-level assessment and evaluation of community colleges. (EV)

Findings and methodologies from recent research on college faculty workload are reviewed and implications for higher education policy are suggested. It is noted that although such studies have not resulted in demonstrable change in allocation of faculty work, they have focused attention on enhanced learning, and that the research has yet to…

A strategy is proposed for using student assessment to support the role of colleges and universities as learning-centered communities. It reframes the practice of formal, internal academic program review to focus on student learning and provides examples of data needed to support this process, some generated by the institutional researcher and…

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…

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…

Examines the coverage, content, and customers of higher education performance reports, along with their purposes, priorities, initiation methods, and emerging changes in their style and substance. (EV)

Compares the results from the National Center for Public Policy in Higher Education's state report cards and state performance reports, and notes that the states with performance reports received no better grades than those without them. (EV)

Reviews the prospects, problems, and possibilities of performance reporting in higher education and discusses two fundamental flaws in performance reporting. (EV)