Elia Powers' 9/21/2006 article for Inside Higher Ed, Assessing Learning Outcomes, summarizes a discussion hosted by the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media, at Columbia University’s Teachers College. My take on this and other reports of the discussion is that there is an emerging consensus in higher education on several directional ideas:
- Rankings (think U.S. News & World Report), while here to stay, are not a measure of learning outcomes -- rather obvious.
- "Value-added" learning is a concept that is increasingly viable in higher education -- see the descriptions of a list of grants awarded by Teagle Foundation to private four-year colleges, and see also the draft VSA (Voluntary System of Accountability) from NASULGC (with input from AASCU) on behalf of public four-year institutions.
- Voluntary, not mandated, learning accountability should be proactively pursued in order to avoid government mandates or other interventions -- see the aforementioned draft VSA from NASULGC and a 2004 paper in University Business addressed to his private-college constituency by CIC President Richard Ekman. Fear of Data: A warning to CIC members to make peace with data--or suffer the consequences.
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