Two opposing postings we should consider!
Laurie Fendrich’s ‘You Will Be Held Accountable‘ continues her lambasting of outcomes assessment in higher education. She criticizes how “outcomes assessment actually plays out in practice is appalling” and is “detrimental to higher education itself.” In her context, which appears to be more related to across the board ‘testing’, we tend to agree. At UNR, the Assessment Office promotes a faculty-driven model that asks individual programs to use data they collect within their program, encourage faculty to reflect on its meaning and use their judgment and expertise to direct program modifications.

The second posting, Kevin Carey’s $$$, Assessment, Etc., considers how the dearth of information about learning in higher education puts institutions at risk in the current economically stressed times. Click on his new column to read his expansive commentary. He makes concessions to Fendrich’s major points (unavoidable costs, limitations, and inaccuracies), but asks us to be practical - TOO! “. . . perfect and total information can’t be the enemy of good.” It’s difficult to argue that programs should not strive to improve, but we suggest programs need to make changes on the basis of information, not in its absence.

Enjoy these commentaries and join the Chronicle’s Brainstorm weblog as well as our own.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 18th, 2009 at 11:08 am and is filed under Assessment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.