Though assessment has been a topic of conversation within the academy for over 20 years, it has not, as Peter Ewell argued in a keynote address at the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) 2002 Assessment Conference, become a "culture of use," a practice "embedded in the lives and work" of those who inhabit college campuses. Ewell…

Highlights the need for greater information about those aspects of U.S. educational capital (the reservoir of knowledge and skills) that are affected by higher education. Urges a concerted, long-term effort to take stock of this under-reported aspect of the nation's educational capital and offers reasons and strategies to focus on a comprehensive…

Reflects on fundamental questions concerning accountability in higher education: "Toward what end?"; "What data and criteria are relevant?"; "Who is responsible for what and to whom?"; and "Through what means?"; Discusses the characteristics of an effective accountability system. (EV)

As well-intentioned reformers turn up the volume on their calls for assessment-based accountability in higher education, warns policymakers and academicians that going forward without clearly defining what they want to measure may result in assessing the wrong things. Describes a framework to guide policy on assessing student learning. (EV)

We may never reach agreement on all of the dimensions of learning that are integral to an undergraduate education, but there is obviously growing consensus on some of those dimensions. In any case, students will learn more effectively when we have made clear at our own institutions and in our programs not just what they will study but how they…

A variety of issues associated with resistance to or necessity for author-anonymous reviewing of scholarly work are examined: sex, age, and even name stereotyping; tradition; institutionalization of egalitarianism; promotion of newer scholars; and power politics. (MSE)

A recent project in higher education in which evidence of falsification was found is described along with two other projects that demonstrate the possibility for falsification. An advantage of standardized questionnaires and machine techniques for scoring and reporting is the low cost, but the need to detect and prevent falsification raises…

The nation's educational accrediting agencies no longer serve the public interest; nonetheless they wield enormous powers over academic institutions. (Editor/IR)

Discusses, in the context of the National Research Council's next study of research-doctorate programs, arguments over continuing use of reputational surveys as the primary measure of program quality, as opposed to more objective measures of research performance. Eleven tables rank institutions for specific fields by reputation, citation density,…

A discussion of technology in higher education looks at common, often erroneous, assumptions made in evaluating computer applications for teaching. The Flashlight Project, a three-year effort to develop and share procedures used by colleges and universities to evaluate education strategies for using technology, is described briefly. (MSE)

Discusses the mounting pressures higher education faces in finding new ways to assess high school students' fitness for college, describing four problems that state are encountering (economic conditions, high attrition levels, changing high school exit requirements, and the changing face of schools) and explaining states' responses to these…

The reasons college and university administrators dislike institutional rankings and ratings of academic quality published in the popular press are examined, and college attributes commonly used in the ratings are discussed. Virtues and flaws of the assessments are noted, and variations in the evaluations over time are illustrated in charts. (MSE)

It is argued that, although assessment of colleges and universities can promote discussion and encourage improvement of college instruction, accountability serves only to further chill the regulatory climate without specifying needs or solutions. As currently conceived, accountability cannot receive widespread faculty support because it usurps…

A national survey of liberal arts colleges' institutional policies and practices in evaluating faculty performance and classroom teaching, focusing on the changes in evaluation since 1978, is reported. Factors considered, their frequency of use, and sources of information for evaluation are examined. (MSE)