U.S. higher education institutions are being called to question their central nature, priorities, and functions, with prominent and unprecedented attention being given to accountability and the measurement of student learning outcomes. As higher education evolves in how it assesses student learning and leisure studies and recreation departments…

The United States education system depends on legislation and funding at the federal, state and local levels. Public understanding of assessment therefore is important to educational reform in the USA. Educational reformers often invoke assessment information as a reason for reform, typically by citing unacceptable achievement on some measure or…

This article is an outgrowth of the evaluation and assessment process in a large interdisciplinary studies (IDS) program at West Virginia University. We argue for the importance of collecting and assessing quantitative and qualitative data concerning learning outcomes, student satisfaction, career choice and development, and graduate education…

In this chapter, the authors focus on issues of validity in measuring student learning as a prospective indicator of institutional effectiveness. Other chapters in this volume include reference to specific approaches to measuring student learning for accountability purposes, such as through standardized tests, authentic samples of student work,…

This handbook is designed as a quick reference for first-year teachers who find themselves in an assessment driven environment with little experience to help make sense of the language, underlying philosophy, or organizational structure of the assessment system. The handbook begins with advice on developing and evaluating effective learning…

This document provides measurement devices to help meet the needs of student learners for feedback on teaching behavior and the requirements of supervising teachers for information about student performance. (The term "student learners" as used here refers to high school students being trained in a laboratory program.) A master's project essay,…