The 2013 national survey of Chief Academic Officers and institutional assessment practice is currently out in the field. Please take a few minutes to complete the survey if you have received an invitation.  To see a copy of the survey, please click here. 

The American College Personnel Association released a publication titled Accreditation and the Role of the Student Affairs Educator which includes a chapter on assessment and institutional effectiveness.  The publication can be found on NILOA's Resource Library. 

This article explores the recent revisions of the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA) based in part on feedback from a 2012 NILOA report that found the VSA needed to expand the range of assessment tools for it to be useful to institutions.  Co-author Stan Ikenberry is interviewed in the article. 

The University of Illinois at Chicago was the focus of a case study to develop and implement a course-based general education assessment.  Click here to read the case study. 

Articles in The Chronicle and Inside Higher Ed highlight a survey conducted by AAC&U which found that employers are interested in a candidate's ability to demonstrate complex problem-solving skills and critical thinking more than the undergraduate major. 

The Office of Assessment at Kansas State University invites applications for the position of Assistant Director of Assessment. The assistant will work with the Director on projects of the Office of Assessment, all of which have an overriding goal of the improvement of student learning at Kansas State University.  For more information about the position and how to apply, please click here. 

In Part 3 of this series, the author considers the benefits of service learning and if drawing connections between coursework and real-world context can open students' eyes to the applicability of learned skills and knowledge.

Articles in The Chronicle and Inside Higher Ed announce the U.S. Department of Education's decision to award federal student aid based on measured competencies.  This decision signals an opening for direct assessment and could give a major boost to competency-based education.

Articles in Inside Higher Ed and York University discuss the findings of a study that confirms students who browse the internet during class comprehend less of the material covered in a lecture and so do students sitting next to the multi-taskers. 

In April 2013, NILOA will send a survey to all accredited two- and four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. to gain a current picture of outcome assessment practices nationwide. The results will update findings from NILOA's first national survey conducted in 2009.

Articles in The Chronicle and Inside Higher Ed highlight the Statway program developed by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching which uses research to redesign a new approach to teaching developmental math. 

Articles in Inside Higher Ed and Newsroom announce the proposal of British Columbia's government to implement a system of quality assurance enhancements to postsecondary education which will encourage a culture of improvement in assessment practices.

In Part 2 of this series, the author explores how some students are highly successful at transferring applied learning from one class to another.

Articles in The Chronicle and Inside Higher Ed examine the possibility of an alternative system of accreditation that would include quality and value of education, as defined through student outcomes, as criteria for receiving federal student aid. 

Articles in Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle discuss the College Scorecard which was developed to help students and their families compare institutions by costs, graduation rates, and average loan debt.  Lacking from the Scorecard is information on learning outcomes or student success.

The Association of Governing Boards published the second edition of Making the Grade: How Boards Can Ensure Academic Quality by Peter Ewell which focuses on effective quality assessment.

Articles in Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle highlight the results of a survey by the Lumina Foundation which found the majority of Americans still value higher education, but have doubts about its quality.

Articles in The Chronicle of Higher Ed and Inside Higher Ed highlight the release of NILOA’s DQP Occasional Paper by Peter Ewell.

Articles in Inside Higher Education and The Chronicle highlight the Lumina Foundation’s goal of increasing the number of college graduates to 60% by 2025 by shifting the foundation’s focus to a student-centric view, rather than an institutional or issue-based focus.

The University of New Haven (CT) is seeking a Director of Academic Assessment.  The Director reports to the Associate Provost and assists the Universitys Assessment Committee.  The position involves providing training to faculty to assist with development of learning outcomes; contributing to collection and analysis of assessment data; and contributing to ongoing efforts using surveys, e-portfolios, and program evaluation.  Experience with assessment of LEAP-inspired general education, experiential education, and with agency assessment requirements is a plus.  For more information, click here.

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth invites applications for the open position of Director of Learning Assessment.  Requirements for the position include a bachelor’s degree and formal training in survey design and qualitative research.  For more information about the position and how to apply, please click here.

Open position: Director of Assessment for the School of Leadership and Education Sciences at the University of San Diego. Position entails coordinating accreditation activities, program review, fostering a culture of assessment, and analysis of data. The director provides leadership and oversight of assessment activities for the purposes of program development and evaluation, accreditation, and institutional effectiveness. For additional information see this job posting. 

Articles in The Chronicle and Inside Higher Ed, announced the intent of the Carnegie Foundation to study the possible redesign of the Carnegie Unit. A likely alternative is to base a standardized unit on some measure of competency instead of time spent in class.

The Chronicle and Inside Higher Ed point to a study concluding that when considering all of the paths to, and through, college, U.S. completion rates jump from 42 percent up to 54 percent.

Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle reference a recent report suggesting that comparing institutional outcomes requires consideration of a variety of student background information.

Applications for CHEA’s Award for Outstanding Institutional Practice in Student Learning Outcomes are due October 15th, 2012.  Download the Application here.

NILOA conducted its first webinar in a series on assessment and the Degree Qualifications Profile on October 5th, 2012. Listen to it here.

Please register for Assessment and the Degree Qualifications Profile on Oct 5, 2012 12:00 PM CDT at: 

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6449699269888819200

This webinar is the first in a series on assessment within the Degree Qualifications Profile (DQP). The webinar will provide a brief overview of assessment resources and institutional activity as it relates to the DQP.

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Articles from Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle introduce the CHEA International Quality Group as a new forum for issues of international accreditation and quality assurance.

These articles from Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle of Higher Education explain how MOOC provider edX partnered with Pearson's testing centers to allow participating students to take proctored exams.

The Chronicle and Inside Higher Ed highlight a new report, which argues that the credit hour is an inadequate measure of student learning. 

Describes discussions from The Teagle Foundation's, "What Works and What Matters in Student Learning" convening. Other reports can be found on The Teagle Foundation's website which include the topics: Presidential and Board Leadership in Student Learning, Teaching and Learning Centers, and Research Universities and Student Learning.

The Center for Assessment and Research Studies and Department of Graduate Psychology at James Madison University invites applications for two tenure-track faculty positions in Assessment and Measurement. Requirements for the positions include a doctorate in a relevant field, credentials, and a scholarship record commensurate with rank, and effective organizational and communication skills. For more information about this position and how to apply, please click here.

The effect of the currently large use of contingent faculty, or adjuncts, on student learning is a focus of a report titled "Report on the Project Working Meeting" by the Delphi Project on the Changing Faculty and Student Success.  

A report titled "Where to Begin? The Evolving Role of Placement Exams for Students Starting College" by Jobs for the Future examined the use and effectiveness of placement tests in higher education. Instead of placement tests, some states are creating homegrown assessments of college readiness.

A report from the National Research Council titled "Education for Life and Work: Developing Transferable Knowledge and Skills in the 21st Century" recommends a "deeper learning" approach to teaching students which includes three types of skill groups - cognitive, intrapersonal, interpersonal.

Competency-based degree programs and student assessments are of focus in the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning's latest report, Competency-Based Degree Programs in the U.S.: Postsecondary Credentials for Measurable Student Learning and Performance.

The Council of Independent Colleges' (CIC) latest report, An Analysis of Learning Outcomes of Underrepresented Students at Urban Institutions, has just been released. Findings of learning outcomes, as measured by the Collegiate Learning Assessment, of students at 19 urban and non-urban CIC institutions are examined.

The Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) recently released its report, A New Classification Scheme for For-Profit Institutions, which outlines a three-level classification framework - market-level, institutional-level and individual-level - to describe for-profit institutions.

The latest issue of Assessment Update: Progress, Trends and Practice in Higher Education for May/June 2012 is now available. Articles in this issue include Trudy Banta's "Collective Assessment and DQP Follow-Up," Gregory Burton's "A 'Wisdom of Crowds' Approach to Outcomes Assessment," and Marilee Bresciani's "Adding Humor to the Position Descriptions of Assessment Coordinators." In addition, articles involving assessment within community colleges, internship programs, and data management systems are included.

A new publication from NAFSA: Association of International Educators titled "Measuring and Assessing Internationalization" by Madeleine F. Green which examines the performance of institutions and student learning outcomes through two different frameworks is now available.

The Institute for a Competitive Workforce recently released its report, "Leaders & Laggards: A State-by-State Report Card Public Postsecondary Education" which measures states' student access and success, efficiency and cost effectiveness, meeting labor market demand, transparency and accountability, policy environment, and innovation of its postsecondary institutions. Recommendations are also offered.

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) released a report, "Connect, Collaborate, and Communicate" which stresses the value of academic libraries and their importance in assessment work on campus. Five recommendations for libraries are offered.

Highlights of Teagle Foundation's recent conference, "What Works and What Matters in Student Learning?," are provided in both The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed.

An article on barriers to quality competency-based education in higher education. A white paper, "A 'Disruptive' Look at Competency-Based Education: How the Innovative Use of Technology Will Transform the College Experience," is also available from the Center for American Progress.

This newest monograph, "Learning Outcomes Assessment Step-by-Step: Enhancing Evidence-Based Practice in Career Services," by Julia Panke Makela and Gail S. Rooney, examine learning outcomes assessments in career services offices. Examples of practical strategies are offered.

The latest report of the National Task Force on Institutional Accreditation, "Assuring Academic Quality in the 21st Century: Self-Regulation in a New Era," outlines its six recommendations to universities and regional accreditors in order to improve quality and transparency in higher education. Articles in The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed provide highlights of the report in addition to quotes from a few of the task force members.

In the recent report, Interactive Learning Online at Public Universities: Evidence From Randomized Trials, the authors found no significant difference in learning outcomes when comparing traditional and hybrid courses. Coverage of this report can be found in both The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed.

This article discusses the results of the U21 Ranking of National Higher Education System, a benchmarking tool used to to assess the quality, impact, and benefit of higher education systems in forty-eight countries in four categories: resources, output, connectivity, and environment. 

A report recently released by the National Research Council titled, "Improving Measurement of Productivity in Higher Education," discusses various ways to measure institutional quality and college productivity. Articles in both The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed provide coverage.

A new report titled, "Linking Diversity and Civic-Minded Practices with Student Outcomes: New Evidence from National Surveys," by Sylvia Hurtado and Linda DeAngelo discusses how diverse, civic-minded learning environments can contribute to positive student outcomes.

W. Robert Connor responds to a recent commentary on accountability in higher education in The Washington Post. He writes:

This piece is appropriate to an election day since it is higher education's equivalent of a "wedge issue", something that divides a constituency that might otherwise be uniting for constructive change. By caricaturing CLA, and waving the red flag of "standardized test"  against it, and raising fears that to use it is a step towards No Child Left Behind, and in the gratuitous swipe at Academically Adrift , this article tends to split those who have found CLA one useful means of focusing on improving student learning,dividing them from those who find other measures work better for them, for one reason or another.

People who have participated in CLA in the Classroom and the CLA Academies have really benefited, they tell me   -- something totally overlooked here. 

In an ideal world cross institutional comparisons would be combined with other measures of student achievement to get a fuller picture of what is happening in an institution, how it compares to its peers, and where to focus efforts to improve.  

Think of the things that have emerged from the multiple-measuires approach used in the Wabash National Study, with the follow ups from the Teagle Scholars. Blaich's measures do not include CLA, but yes, "standardized," tests are used. thereby allowing cross-institutional comparisons. And I have seen institutional benefits emerge as a result.

So I cry FOUL.

A commentary in response to the recently released AACC report, "Reclaiming the American Dream: Community Colleges and the Nation’s Future."

Read Inside Higher Ed's articles on the future of prior learning assessment. Part I provides background on the current efforts of using prior learning assessment primarily for adult learners. Part II explores the efforts in awarding credit for prior learning assessment for "college-level learning" by partnerships between corporate businesses (i.e., Walmart, Starbucks) and for-profit higher education institutions. 

edX, a newly formed partnership between Harvard University and MIT and outgrowth of MITx, will now offer open online courses to more students. edX is featured in articles in both The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed.

Split into two parts, this article presents conversations held with six students about what they value in a college education as well as what they see as the future of higher education. Part I and Part II are included here.

The challenges of customizing a student's learning in addition to other issues with the use of online learning platforms in college classrooms is the focus of a report titled, Barriers to Adoption of Online Learning Systems in U.S. Higher Education," authored by Lawrence S. Bacow and William G. Bowen. Articles in both IHE and The Chronicle provide coverage.

An opinion piece discussing current measurements of student learning. A response to this article in The Chronicle of Higher Ed can be found here.

Updates to the U.S. Department of Education's work on revamping teacher-training programs plan to require states to use reliable and valid measures of student learning to show the added value of these programs. Reported in articles in The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed.

"Assessing College Student Learning: Evaluating Alternative Models, Using Multiple Methods," by Robert J. Sternberg, Jeremy Penn, Christie Hawkins, and Sally Reed presents information about assessments plans and models in this publication. Institutional case studies are also provided.

A recent article titled, "The Learning Outcomes Race: The Value of Self-Report Gains in Large Research Universities," written by John Aubrey Douglass, Gregg Thomson, and Chun-Mei Zhao, focuses on the results obtained from the University of California’s Undergraduate Experience Survey (Student Experience in the Research University Survey: SERU-S). The authors conclude ". . . designed properly, student surveys offer a valuable and more nuanced alternative in understanding and identifying learning outcomes in the broad tapestry of higher education institutions." The article's full text can be downloaded here.

The latest issue of Assessment UPdate: Progress, Trends and Practice in Higher Education for January/February 2012 is now available. Two feature articles of special interest are "Getting SMART with Assessment: ACTION Steps to Institutional Effectiveness," written by Eric Daffron & Sandra Jordan and "Expectations for Assessment Reports: A Descriptive Analysis," written by Keston Fulcher, Matthew Swain, and Chris Orem. In addition, Trudy Banta and Gary Pike offer thoughts on assessment in the field. 

The Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium (HEDS) at Wabash College invites applications for the position of Research Analyst. The Research Analyst will work with the HEDS Director to develop and implement the consortium’s data collection, analysis, and reporting strategy. Candidates should have a Master's degree in an applicable discipline with a doctorate preferred, excellent data analytic, written communication, and oral communication skills and an interest in working flexibly as a member of a team that is reinventing itself to improve its support of the institutional effectiveness of consortium members. Strong quantitative  and research skills, including appropriate experience with statistical software and Microsoft Excel are required to qualify. For more information about this position and how to apply, please visit the Wabash College web site at www.wabash.edu/employment.  

Articles in both The Chronicle and Inside Higher Ed discuss new research on how assessments of prior learning, in this case ACCUPLACER and COMPASS, are not as reliable a predictor of future academic success as previously thought for community college students.

This article discusses changes in Teacher Education Programs through a commission formed by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation. Of particular focus is the Teacher Performance Assessment, "a subject area-specific, performance-based assessment for pre-service teacher candidates, centered on student learning."

Scientific knowledge is no longer of sole importance in getting a high score on the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT). Starting in 2015, the MCAT will include sections such as psychological, social, and biological foundations of behavior and critical analysis and reasoning skills. Articles in The Chronicle of Higher Ed and Inside Higher Ed highlight these new changes to the MCAT.

MITx's first OpenCourseWare course, 6.002x: Circuits and Electronics, opened today.  Students, in hopes of earning credentials, will have their assignments and activities evaluated by machines. Articles in both The Chronicle of Higher Ed and Inside Higher Ed briefly discuss this initiative.

The American Historical Association is teaming up with Lumina to help define learning outcomes for history graduates at the associate, bachelor, and graduate degree levels. Coverage of this effort can be found in both The Chronicle of Higher Ed and Inside Higher Education.

Read Lederman's interview with Richard P. Keeling and Richard H. Hersh, authors of We're Losing Our Minds, about a term they call "higher learning." 

Program-level assessment and developing liberal education outcomes are discussed in the latest issue of AAC&U's, Liberal Education.

Read AAC&U's latest edition of Bringing Theory to Practice which highlights SUNY Cortland's assessment process.

A brief article describing President Obama's new "College Scorecard" which will hopefully help higher education institutions be more accountable and transparent about their costs (see more information about the Scorecard here).

"Documenting Uncertain Times: Postgraduate Transitions of the Academically Adrift Cohort" a report written by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa as a follow-up to Academically Adrift was released at AAC&U's meeting this week.

The New Leadership Alliance for Student Learning and Accountability recently released its "Committing to Quality: Guidelines for Assessment and Accountability in Higher Education" which outline four broad principles for assessment and improvement in higher education: 1) set ambitious goals; 2) gather evidence of student learning; 3) use evidence to improve student learning; and 4) report evidence and results.  Articles in both The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed highlight this publication.

This article discusses one response that a company, StraighterLine, plans to use to possibly validate 'badges' (see an earlier article about badges here).  

Check out Charles Secolsky & D. Brian Denison's (2011) edited book, Handbook on Measurement, Assessment, and Evaluation in Higher Education, which features a chapter written by NILOA's Staci Provezis and Natasha Jankowski titled, "Presenting Learning Outcomes Assessment Results to Foster Use."

Lumina's latest edition of Focus is now available.  "New Ways to Measure Student Learning" written by Susan Headden,a senior writer/editor at Education Sector, is the featured article.  Findings from NILOA's surveys are included.

As a result of the initial pilot study, the American Association of Community Colleges urges its member institutions to adopt the newly developed Voluntary Framework of Accountability created specifically for the unique needs of community colleges.  Articles on the topic can be found in both Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The newest issue of Research & Practice in Assessment has now been released.  Some of the articles include: "Creating Seamless K-16 Pathways: Role of Assessment" written by Hillary R. Michaels, Katrice Hawthorne, Nuria Cuevas, and Alexei G. Mateev; "Exploring the Success of Transfer Programs For Community College Students" written by Reginald S. Blaylock and Marilee J. Bresciani; and a book review of Peggy Maki's "Coming to Terms with Student Outcomes Assessment: Faculty and Administrators’ Journeys to Integrating Assessment in Their Work and Institutional Culture" written by Dorothy C. Doolittle.

NILOA's newest report on the transparency of evidence, written by Natasha Jankowski and Staci Provezis, is featured in Inside Higher Education and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The Council for Independent Colleges weighs in on the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) and ways in which they have used it within their institutions in both Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Articles in both The Chronicle of Higher Ed and Inside Higher Ed highlight The Association of American Colleges and Universities recent $2.2 million, three-year effort in improving student learning and its assessment in eight states.

Three authors talk about the Spellings Report near its 5th anniversary in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Kelly Field's article, "Spellings Panel Spurred Progress in Some Key Areas but Failed to Remake American Higher Education" examines progress made in 3 areas: access, accountability, and affordability.

Margaret Spellings' Q&A titled,"Former Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings Discusses the Impact of Her Commission" gauges progress made since the Report.

Robert Zemsky's "The Unwitting Damage Done by the Spellings Commission" gives us an insider's view of the Spellings Commission and how he sees it now.

A new report issued by the Education Department's Committee on Measures of Student Success regarding their recommendations for judging student success at community colleges was just released.  The Education Department stated that some improvements were needed for the voluntary collection, disclosure, and reporting of community colleges, especially in the areas of measuring student learning and employment.  Articles in both The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed discuss the report and recommendations.  

A new framework proposed by Francisco Cigarroa, Chancellor of the University of Texas Systems Board, was recently released in an effort to become more transparent.  The framework is "designed to improve accountability, outcomes, and efficiency at the systems nine academic institutions and six health centers."  Articles in The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed highlight this effort.  

The tenth NILOA Occasional Paper titled, Learning Outcomes Assessment in Community Colleges, written by Charlene Nunley, Trudy Bers, and Terri Manning has just been released.  Articles discussing the paper were written in today's Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The latest issue of Research & Practice in Assessment is now available here.  Some articles contained in this issue include: Marilee J. Bresciani - "Identifying Barriers in Implementing Outcomes-Based Assessments Program Review: A Grounded Theory Analysis"; Lauren Weiner & Marilee J. Bresciani - "Can Institutions Have Quality Programming Without Utilizing a Systematic Outcomes-Based Assessment Process?"; and Walter F. Heinecke - "Reflective (Ac) Counting: Institutional Research, Evaluation, & Assessment in a Time of Cholera."  A book review of "Academically Adrift" written by Kathryne Drezek McConnell is also featured.

This article in the May-June 2011 issue of Change Magazine discusses in more detail what is needed to reach President Obama's 2020 college completion goal.  Included is information about what's needed to increase the quality of schools and of student learning in America's schools.

Find out about what's new with NILOA in addition to recent news items about learning outcomes assessment in this month's newsletter.

The NILOA 2011 National Survey Report titled, Down and In: Assessment Practices at the Program Level, written by Peter Ewell, Jillian Kinzie, and Karen Paulson has just been released.  Articles discussing the paper were written in today's Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The Council of Graduate Schools just released their latest publication, Preparing Future Faculty to Assess Student Learning.  This monograph examines professional development programs designed to help current graduate students understand more about student learning outcomes assessment. Check out the press release here.

NILOA's Occasional Paper 9 titled, "What faculty unions say about student learning outcomes assessment" written by Larry Gold, Gary Rhoades, Mark Smith, and George Kuh has just been released.  Articles discussing the paper were written in today's Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Results from a recent Pew Center Research survey show college and university presidents feelings about the quality of teaching and learning at their institutions.

In an effort to improve student learning outcomes, six schools - American Public University System, Colorado Community College System, Rio Salado College, University of Hawaii System, University of Illinois Springfield, and the University of Phoenix - are led by WCET (the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies) through a $1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The press release is located here.

Using data from the book, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, recently released by sociologists Richard Arum and Josipa Roks as the backbone of this article, several business schools are highlighted specifically for their different assessment methods.  Interviews with deans of the business schools and the president of Babson College featured in this article can also be found in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Results of the Voluntary Framework of Accountability, being tested by 72 community colleges, were communicated to an audience at this past week's American Association of Community Colleges Conference in article written in The Chronicle.  The session was also featured in an article in Inside Higher Ed.

AAC&U's latest publication, The LEAP Vision for Learning: Outcomes, Practices, Impact, and Employers' Views, has just been released.  Some of the information covered include "summaries of research about high-impact educational practices and learning outcomes; summaries of trends in curricular, assessment, and general education reform; and data about the outcomes that employers value in the college graduates they hire and promote."

The Association of Governing Boards recently released its statement on the responsibility of governing boards of ensuring educational quality for the institutions it serves in addition to understanding the importance of student learning outcomes.  Articles on AGB's statement were featured in Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

In Philadelphia this past weekend, the American Federation of Teacher's (AFT) Higher Education Division's recently released report titled, "Student Success in Higher Education" was of particular focus.  In this report, the faculty role in assessing student learning as well as AFT's stance on assessment were a part of the discussions.  Coverage in Inside Higher Ed features NILOA's George Kuh and Peter Ewell.  The conference was also mentioned in an article in The Chronicle.

.

This article in AACU's Liberal Education publication examines possible reasons why students are studying less in college.  A review of results from leading assessment tools used to survey students is included.

Read this article in AAC&U's Liberal Education publication about one professor's journey towards assessing student learning outcomes for his course.

NILOA just released its Transparency Framework designed to help institutions evaluate the extent to which they are making evidence of student accomplishment readily accessible and potentially useful and meaningful to various audiences.  See coverage of the Framework in Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Check out Dr. George Kuh's blog titled, They'll Love You Just the Way You Are: Tiptoeing Toward Transparency, written for one of AAC&U's initiatives - Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP): Excellence for Everyone as a Nation Goes to College - which "features postings and perspectives on 'liberal education' - how it is changing, why it is so important in today's world, and what people are saying about it around the country and the world."  

Trudy Banta and Charlie Blaich, Edwin Welch, and Terrel Rhodes have articles featured on topics of assessment and student learning outcomes in the latest issue of Change Magazine. 

In an effort to improve student outcomes, the City Colleges of Chicago are in the process of possibly replacing its leadership.  Chancellor Cheryl L. Hyman's reasoning for this is because the current job description did not focus on students and student outcomes which needed to be reflected in today's presidencies.  Both The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed discuss this as one of their featured stories. 

A new book titled, "Literary Study, Measurement, and the Sublime: Disciplinary Assessment" written by Donna Heiland, vice president at Teagle Foundation and Laura J. Rosenthal is due out this month by the Teagle Foundation. The book uses essays by current scholars in both the fields of literary studies and assessment to discuss the pros and cons of using assessment in the study of literature.   A commentary on the book by the authors is in the current edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education.  Inside Higher Ed also features a dialogue with the authors about their book. 

In this commentary in The Chronicle, Theodore Wagenaar discusses the "most essential elements of quality assessment" as well as the need for faculty to become more engaged in assessment.

The recent book, Academically Adrift by Arum and Roksa, is the feature of a new article by David Glenn.  Glenn's article "Scholars Question New Book's Gloom on Education" examines some of the limitations of the study's findings.  Want more commentaries on Academically Adrift?  Check out Alexander W. Astin's statistical take on the book and also a response by Jonathan Zimmerman relating the book to Vanderbilt doctors and a cup of coffee, both in The Chronicle of Higher Education. A live chat with the authors is also featured.

The Assessment of Evidence Series initiated by the Community College Research Center (CCRC) focuses on eight areas: developmental education assessment, developmental acceleration, developmental math pedagogy, contextualization of basic skills instruction, online learning, non-academic support, institutional program structure, and organizational improvement. CCRC's goal of the series is "to help community colleges identify concrete strategies that have the potential to improve student success on a scale needed to meet national goals for increased postsecondary attainment."

CCRC has just released its' latest Working Paper in their Assessment of Evidence Series titled, "Assessing Developmental Assessment in Community Colleges" written by Katherine L. Hughes & Judith Scott-Clayton (February 2011).

The report titled, "Turning the Tide: Five Years of Achieving the Dream in Community Colleges" was just released February 2011 by MDRC, a nonprofit social-policy-research organization, and the Community College Research Center at Columbia University's Teachers College.  This report reviews the progress that the 26 colleges involved in the Achieving the Dream Initiative, funded by Lumina Foundation for Education, have made from 2004 through Spring 2009.  An article in Inside Higher Ed also discusses some of the findings of the report.

Over the past weekend, the U.S. Department of Education helped lead a discussion on the future of higher education accreditation.   Some issues included accreditation's gatekeeping function, "prodding" vs. "fixing", and the role of federal government in terms of accreditation. 

The following articles: Mend It, Don't End It (2/4/11, Inside Higher Ed), Advisory Panel Wades Into Sticky Accreditation Issues (2/4/11, The Chronicle of Higher Education), and Policy Making by Post-It Notes (2/7/11, Inside Higher Ed) describes the above issues and others in more detail.  NILOA's Peter Ewell is also featured.

Lumina Foundation for Education released their newest publication, The Degree Qualifications Profile, designed by four higher education policy experts, including NILOA's own Peter Ewell.  The Degree Qualifications Profile was created to address the specific learning outcomes graduating students should obtain regardless of their degree level (associate, bachelor, or master's degree).  

Articles written in The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed addresses both some of the advantages and concerns associated with this Profile, if implemented as intended.

Four articles are in the Measuring Stick blog discussing the Presidents' Alliance. One from William M. Chance, a second from Josipa Roksa and Laura W. Perna and a third from, Michael Poliakoff. A final word comes from David Paris, the executive director of New Leadership Alliance.

Discussing the new NILOA webscan report, both the Chronicle and Inside Higher Ed briefly discuss the main findings.

This USA Today article starts with the question of the value of a college degree.  As referenced in the article, the AAC&U's statement, "Quality Imperative" can be downloaded by clicking here. Inside Higher Ed also has an article discussing this report.

A number of articles have addressed the new NSSE report: Inside Higher Education has a commentary on the report, while the Chronicle writes about a presentation at ASHE that was critical of the report, which Inside Higher Education also had a similiar article, and USA Today ties in NSSE research with their data-- listing examples of learning outcome activities.