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Greetings!
As you may know, the Chronicle
of Higher Education has started a new series of articles, "Measuring Stick,"
"that will explore debates about quality in higher education-how to
measure it and how to improve it." This
is good news for all of us in higher education because it bring to the
forefront the question of how well we are educating our students and how we
know it. The Obama administration's
laudable goal of leading the world in postsecondary achievement will only be
meaningful if the degrees we award reflect real quality, that students are
prepared for work, life, and responsible citizenship.
The Chronicle's initial article in the
series was also gratifying because it cited the Alliance as part of "The New
Muscle: 5 Quality-of Learning Projects That Didn't Exist 5 Years Ago." Since this article requires a subscription to
read online, I thought it was important to share information about these
initiatives with you. These and other
projects, such as the newly formed Association for Assessment of Learning in
Higher Education (AALHE), have moved the issue of the quality of student learning to
center stage.
The real
test of this shift in focus to quality will be whether we in higher education,
faculty, administrators, student affairs professionals, take a critical look at
our practices in assessing student learning and, where appropriate, change them
accordingly to improve student learning. We know a great deal about measuring student knowledge, skills, and
attitudes. The issue is putting to
intelligent use what we know as a regular part of our work as educators.
The
Alliance is proud to be part of this movement. We encourage you to take part as well-discuss the Alliance and other
initiatives on your campus and what you can do to assess and improve student
learning. Look next month for the formal
announcement of our Presidents' Alliance, a group of more than seventy-five
Presidents who are committing themselves to specific improvements in gathering,
reporting on, and using evidence of student learning. This and other initiatives in the future will
be the Alliance's contribution to improving quality in American higher
education.
Sincerely,
David C. Paris, Executive Director
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NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON
LEARNING OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT
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Established in 2008, the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA)
assists institutions and others in discovering and adopting promising
practices in the assessment of college student learning outcomes.
Documenting what students learn, know and can do is of growing interest
to colleges and universities, accrediting groups, higher education
associations, foundations and others beyond campus, including students,
their families, employers, and policy makers.
NILOA's primary objective is to discover and
disseminate ways that academic programs and institutions can
productively use assessment data internally to inform and strengthen
undergraduate education, and externally to communicate with policy
makers, families and other stakeholders.
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LIBERAL EDUCATION AND AMERICA'S PROMISE
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Liberal Education and America's Promise (LEAP) is a
national initiative that champions the importance of a
twenty-first-century liberal education-for individual students and for a
nation dependent on economic creativity and democratic vitality.
Through LEAP, hundreds of campuses and several state systems are
making far-reaching educational changes to help all their
students-whatever their chosen field of study-achieve a set of essential
learning outcomes fostered through liberal education. In numerous
LEAP projects and activities, AAC&U partners with campuses, state
systems, and K-12 educational leaders as they make these essential
learning outcomes a framework for educational excellence, assessment of
learning, and new alignments between school and college.
Launched in 2005, LEAP challenges the traditional
practice of providing liberal education to some students and narrow
training to others. LEAP engages the public with core questions about
what really matters in college; connects employers and educational
leaders as they make the case for the importance of liberal education in
the global economy and in our diverse democracy; and helps all
students achieve the essential learning outcomes. Through LEAP,
AAC&U calls on the United States to "make excellence inclusive" so
that all students receive the best and most powerful preparation for
work, life, and citizenship.
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VOLUNTARY SYSTEM OF ACCOUNTABILITY
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The Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA) is an initiative by public 4-year universities to supply
basic, comparable information on the undergraduate student experience to important
constituencies through a common web report - the College Portrait.
The VSA was developed in 2007 by a committed group of
university leaders and is sponsored by two higher education associations
- the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and the
Association
of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU).
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TUNING USA
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Lumina Foundation has initiated Tuning USA, a faculty-led pilot project
designed to define what students must know, understand and be able to
demonstrate after completing a degree in a specific field. Tuning USA
methodology is based on similar work to increase the transparency around
what a degree represents under Europe's Bologna Process.
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SEND US YOUR FEEDBACK
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We'd like to know what you think about the Alliance and our newsletter. Please send your comments to office@newleadershipalliance.org.
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