Higher Education Assessments

Leadership Matters

Contributions by Raymond Barclay, Trudy Bers, Bryan D. Bradley, Peter J. Gray, Coral Hanson, Trav D. Johnson, Jillian Kinzie, Thomas E. Miller, John Muffo, Danny Olsen, Russell T. Osguthorpe, John H. Schuh, Kay H. Smith, Vasti Torres Edited by Gary L. Kramer, Randy L. Swing

Publication date:

16 October 2010

Length of book:

288 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781442206205

Higher Education Assessments: Leadership Matters reflects the work of a select group of researchers, scholars, and practitioners in higher education assessment with the goal of identifying strategies that assist senior campus leaders as they respond to the challenges of a changing economic landscape and political climate. The contributors, experts in the field, bring to the forefront key issues relevant to advancing assessments in higher education-principles that culminate in improving student learning and development. Kramer and Swing provide a tool for presidents, vice presidents, provosts, and deans to determine which areas of assessment matter most in their institutions and how they can measure progress in aligning claims with outcomes. The contributors deftly address assessment in student affairs, documentation of student learning, student engagement to bridge learner outcomes, assessment in the disciplines, assessments that can transform a culture, and putting students first as partners in the learning enterprise. In doing so, they have focused on what a campus president and his or her team need to know and do to lead assessment successfully on campus and as they set the tone for and facilitate institutional assessments.

Chapter 1 Foreword
Chapter 2 Acknowledgments
Chapter 3 PREFACE (Purpose, Audience, Book Organization and About the Authors)
Part 4 Part 1 - LEADING ASSESSMENTS ON THE CAMPUS
Chapter 5 1. Championing the Assessment of Learning: The Role of Top Leaders
Chapter 6 2. Assessment Frameworks that Can Make a Difference in Achieving Institutional Outcomes
Part 7 Part 2 - BRIDGING LEARNER OUTCOMES: FINDING COMMON GROUND
Chapter 8 3. Assessment and Student Diversity
Chapter 9 4. Assessments in Student Services that Foster Student and Program Success
Chapter 10 5. Documenting Student Learning: Valuing the Process
Chapter 11 6. Learning Outcomes, Assessment, And Program Improvement
Part 12 Part 3 - ASSESSMENTS THAT TRANSFORM THE LEARNING CULTURE
13 7.Student Engagement and a Culture of Assessment
14 8. Assessment in the Disciplines
15 9. Assessment That Transforms an Institution
16 10. Putting Students First as Partners in the Learning Enterprise
17 EPILOGUE
18 Subject Index/Name Index

From the Foreword: The challenge of the next decade will be not just to take stock of student learning, but to get better at generating it, intentionally, systematically, and continuously. The chapters in this volume are designed to remind that the management of assessment is much like the management of anything else. What is needed is an explicit plan, consistent with the institution's mission and values, that documents in sufficient detail what needs to be done and who is to do it....