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June 23, 2008

Putting Assessment to Work
By Bob Connor, The Teagle Foundation

In the spring of 2008, the Teagle Foundation asked eight well respected and well informed specialists in the field of assessment to identify which institutions stood out for using assessment to improve student learning. Here is a tabulation of their responses:

    Identified by four respondents:
        Alverno
        Portland State

    Identified by three respondents:
        Bowling Green State
        Indiana University/Purdue-Indianapolis
        James Madison
        Kalamazoo
        North Carolina State
        Southern Illinois at Edwardsville
        University of Charleston (WV)
        US Air Force Academy
        Wagner College

    Identified by two respondents:
        Agnes Scott
        Carleton
        Duke
        Earlham
        Hampshire
        Kennesaw State
        Kings
        Rose-Hulman Institute
        St. Olaf
        Truman State
        US Naval Academy (Annapolis)
        US Military Academy (West Point)
        Winthrop
Fifty two other US institutions (and two Canadian ones) were identified by one respondent or another. When I asked my associates at the Teagle Foundation for their lists, they added fourteen colleges that had not been identified by other respondents.

What can we infer from this informal survey?

Who else is out there? First, it is striking how little overlap there was among the lists. A few institutions stand out, but experts in the field tend to each point to some colleges with which they happen to be acquainted. The pattern suggests to me that many other institutions are probably using systematic assessment to good advantage but have not yet gained wide attention. There may be a need for a more comprehensive inventory.

Where are the flagships? Second, public universities predominate. They have, after all, been under pressure for some years to use assessment and have in some cases done so with considerable success. There are, however, very few state “flagship” universities on the list. It seems unlikely that our informants are simply unaware of exciting work at the flagships, but it would be interesting to know whether the apparent low level of interest in these institutions is the result of resistance or other causes.

Where are the Ivies? Third, although many private colleges are on the list, private universities are rarely mentioned. In addition, it appears that the more selective the institution, the less likely it is to be on the list. No institution from the Ivy League is mentioned, for example. Similarly, among the liberal arts colleges, the most selective appear only rarely. At Teagle we believe this is changing, but we do not expect dramatic shifts overnight!

The End of Emulation: Perhaps the most important inference then is that an older model of educational change does not apply in this area. Less prestigious institutions have often imitated, in so far as resources permitted, the curricular and instructional innovations of their more prestigious counterparts. Emulation has been a powerful force in American higher education. In this area, however, the pattern may be turning on its head. Emulation is probably still a powerful force in many areas of higher education, but when it comes to putting assessment to work to improve student learning, there is little to emulate at the top of the pecking order.

Promulgating Best Practices: Will more prestigious institutions (and those that want to appear prestigious) start studying and then imitating their less prestigious counterparts? I doubt it. If the know-how gained at institutions such as those on the above list is to have broad effect, it probably has to be reformulated as widely applicable “best practices,” promulgated by relatively influential national associations and accrediting organizations.



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