EDUCATIONAL EFFECTIVENESS
Click here for: Taking Responsibility
for the Quality of the
Undergraduate Degree (pdf)
This is a report from AAC&U’s Greater Expectations Project
on Accreditation and Assessment. As a follow-up to the Greater
Expectations report, it provides additional guidance to the specific
challenge of revitalizing of liberal education in preparing the
next generation of college graduates. It also highlights the
need for all faculty and academic administrators to take collective
responsibility for this worthy objective.
Click here for: Our Students' Best Work: A Framework
for
Accountability Worthy of our Mission (pdf)
This statement, framed and approved by the AAC&U Board of Directors,
is designed to help universities as they continue to improve upon
strategies of assessment and accountability appropriate to their
own missions. It is also intended to assist institutions as they
respond to questions about accountability from both policy makers
and members of the general public.
Click here for: Statement of Mutual Responsibilities for Student Learning Outcomes: Accreditation, Institutions, and Programs (pdf)
This statement, adopted by the Board of Directors of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), lays out the "big picture" of why and how this movement for assessment has taken center stage in higher education now.Click here for: Public Accountability for Student Learning in Higher Education: Issues and Options (pdf)
This is a position paper from the Business-Higher Education Forum, an organization of prominent leaders in higher education and the business community. It provides a broad contextual framework for understanding the relation between assessment of educational programs and accountability, by which it means the process of communicating to the public the goals and accomplishments of those programs.
Click here for: Building a Nation of Learners (pdf)
In this report, the Business-Higher Education Forum communicates a heightened sense of urgency in addressing the "skills deficit" and argues that to better prepare for the challenges of the high-performing jobs of the future, higher education must transform the teaching and learning process to build a nation of learners equipped with the key skills needed to succeed in a global, networked economy. It also reports on several innovations underway across U.S. higher education.
Click here for: Liberal Education Outcomes: A Preliminary Report on Student Achievement in College, AAC&U, January 2006 (pdf)
This report on liberal education outcomes provides a wide-ranging and thought-provoking overview of student achievement in college. It examines a set of outcomes that are highly prized both by the academy and by employers, which include critical thinking, quantitative literacy, communication skills, ethical reasoning, and civic engagement. Drawing together research from diverse sources and studies, this report examines what we know—and how much we still need to find out—about student achievement on these and other important learning outcomes across the several years of college.