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

In this chapter, the author proposes a model for assessing institutional effectiveness. The Volkwein model for assessing institutional effectiveness consists of five parts that summarize the steps for assessing institutions, programs, faculty, and students. The first step in the model distinguishes the dual purposes of institutional effectiveness:…

After surveying 1,827 students in their final year at eighty randomly selected two-year and four-year public and private institutions, American Institutes for Research (2006) reported that approximately 30 percent of students in two-year institutions and nearly 20 percent of students in four-year institutions have only basic quantitative…

Evaluative statements from alumni have legitimacy with both internal and external stakeholders. Thus, alumni studies can provide valuable evidence of institutional effectiveness and lend themselves to both locally designed and commercial survey instruments for data collection. Under ideal conditions, the results of alumni studies equip faculty and…

Assessing student attainment in the major field of study is increasingly important to employers and accrediting bodies alike. Construction and manufacturing firms do not like engineers who design faulty bridges and airplanes. Marketing firms want to hire students who understand the difference between a niche market and a global market. School…

Despite their apparent popularity among those seeking degrees and credentials, today's colleges and universities face several interrelated public criticisms and concerns. When these competing concerns about student success, productivity, cost, and educational effectiveness all collide at the campus level, they create an array of campus tensions…

In both purpose and practice, general education in American higher education has experienced several recurring debates and national revivals. In a world with constantly evolving technology, students need a strong general education to be flexible and adaptable to the changes of the world. General education is an important component and requirement…

A diverse society has created a diverse education system, which in turn requires diverse and complex mechanisms of quality control. The diversity and complexity of the industrial, service, and knowledge-based economy, with its vast variety of occupations and dynamic labor markets, heavily influences the curricular structures and academic profiles…

This chapter considers the limitations of traditional faculty assessment systems in the context of Boyers' four domains of scholarship and suggests a new organizing template for realigning assessment systems to accommodate work in all four domains. (EV)

This chapter examines the fundamental concepts, principles, and practices that characterize the most effective contemporary approaches to the evaluation of faculty teaching performance. (EV)

The differences between evaluation of academic units and evaluation of administrative units are discussed, and the development and implementation of a procedure for administrative unit evaluation at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is described. (MSE)

A discussion of administrative program evaluation addresses the problem and opportunity of evaluation from the perspective of the administrator or institutional researcher by suggesting criteria for deciding on the need for formal evaluation, examining several evaluation design strategies, and looking at how evaluation can enhance organizational…

A summary of themes and observations in the development of management and planning techniques for colleges and universities is presented. Suggestions are included on how institutional researchers may assess changes in the management systems of their own institutions. (MSE)

Issues in the evaluation of the college planning process are examined, and 13 questions to be addressed in assessing both strategic and operational planning functions are presented, including criteria for evaluating (1) the decisional aspect of planning, (2) planning data, and (3) the process. Evaluation methods are also discussed. (MSE)

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…