Comparability of learning outcomes assessment data -- rather, the lack thereof -- has become a major federal and, therefore, national issue. See, for example, the centrality of this issue to Judith Eaton's recommendations in Institutions, Accreditors, and the Federal Government: Redefining Their "Appropriate Relationship," in Change (September/October 2007, pages 16-23). The Chronicle excerpt below reveals that the issue is not unique to the U.S. Indeed, the OECD is entering the fray and pursuing a cross-border, international set of standards for assessing and comparing learning outcome.
Quest for International Measures of Higher-Education Learning Results Raises Concerns
Aisha Labi, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 19, 2007
A fledgling international effort to develop comparable assessment standards for measuring how much students are learning at higher-education institutions throughout the world is provoking concern from several quarters, even though the project is still in its preliminary stages. The push is being led by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, whose 30 member countries include many of the world's most advanced economies, such as Australia, Japan, the United States, and several European nations. The effort grew out of a meeting last year of the group's education ministers and secretaries, at which the apparent dearth of available data on student-learning outcomes prompted discussion about how to fill that void. "It became evident that there are a lot of measurements about research outcomes at institutions of higher education, but what about the learning outcomes?" said Barbara Ischinger, director for education at the organization, which is known as the OECD. The push to formulate global standards for assessing higher-education learning outcomes coincides with efforts by some national and regional education systems -- for example, in the United States and in the 47 European nations that are synchronizing their degree system in the decade-long Bologna Process -- to develop standards within their own spheres. Chronicle subscribers can read more ...
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