American higher education needs a major reframing of student learning outcomes assessment Dynamic changes are underway in American higher education. New providers, emerging technologies, cost concerns, student debt, and nagging doubts about quality all call out the need for institutions to show evidence of student learning. From scholars at the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA), Using Evidence of Student Learning to Improve Higher Education presents a reframed conception and approach to student learning outcomes assessment. The authors explain why it is counterproductive to view collecting and using evidence of student accomplishment as primarily a compliance activity. Today's circumstances demand a fresh and more strategic approach to the processes by which evidence about student learning is obtained and used to inform efforts to improve teaching, learning, and decision-making. Whether you're in the classroom, an administrative office, or on an assessment committee, data about what students know and are able to do are critical for guiding changes that are needed in institutional policies and practices to improve student learning and success. Use this book to: Understand how and why student learning outcomes assessment can enhance student accomplishment and increase institutional effectiveness Shift the view of assessment from being externally driven to internally motivated Learn how assessment results can help inform decision-making Use assessment data to manage change and improve student success Gauging student learning is necessary if institutions are to prepare students to meet the 21st century needs of employers and live an economically independent, civically responsible life. For assessment professionals and educational leaders, Using Evidence of Student Learning to Improve Higher Education offers both a compelling rationale and practical advice for making student learning outcomes assessment more effective and efficient.

A brief history of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation -- Preface -- The challenge of quality to higher education in the decade to come -- About accreditation -- The co-evolution of accreditation and higher education in America -- Accreditation and the academy -- Self-governance in the United States -- Accreditation and government -- CHEA recognition of accrediting organizations -- Taking stock of accreditation -- Into the future. -- Appendix A. Accreditation and the courts -- Appendix B. CHEA Tenth Anniversary Commission -- Appendix C. CHEA Board of Directors -- Glossary of Acronyms.

THE EFFECTS OF ASSESSMENT ON UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION.

Intensification of potato production and pesticide use in Peru; Pest management practices in the Highlands; Andean weevil: an endemic pest in the Highlands; Potato tuber moth in stores; The leaf miner fly in Canete: a pesticide treadmill.

Three case studies; Mechanisms linking on-farm research and extension; General lessons.

At some future point, when a definitive history of the assessment movement is written, one of the most frequently cited, influential publications will be "Assessment Update" ("AU"). Since 1989, this bimonthly newsletter has been published by Jossey-Bass in partnership with Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). It is no coincidence that the two most frequent contributors to "AU," Trudy Banta--"AU"'s founding editor and intellectual muse--and Peter Ewell, are also among the most prolific thinkers and writers shaping the scholarship and practice of student learning outcomes assessment. In this featured NILOA occasional paper, Banta and Ewell with the assistance of Cynthia Cogswell mine the pages of "AU" between 2000 through 2015 to distill the major themes and advances that characterize the evolution of assessment as a field of professional practice. [Foreword by George D. Kuh.].

NCHEMS (National Center for Higher Education Management Systems) has worked with the National Association of Systems heads (NASH)--with support from the Lumina Foundation for Education--to develop (1) empirically-based access regions for postsecondary institutions based on student enrollment patterns and (2) access, transition, and completion measures to gauge how well institutions serve their regions with respect to racial/ethnic equity. This work was conducted to provide additional information to the existing comparative college graduation rates by institution and race/ethnicity presented on the website www.collegeresults.org--developed by the Education Trust. From a combination of detailed student enrollment data provided by several states (by county of student residency), state-to-state student migration data provided by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), and additional data from NCES, the authors developed the following categories of four-year postsecondary institutions: (1) National Institutions; (2) Statewide Institutions; (3) Multi-State Institutions; (4) Urban Institutions; and (5) Regional Institutions. Graphs and charts are appended. (Contains 7 figures and 7 data sources.) [This paper is submitted to the National Association of System Heads.].

To address the issue of student learning at the state level, an invitational forum of public policy, business, and education leaders was convened by James B. Hunt Jr., governor of North Carolina. The forum recommended that the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education initiate a "demonstration project" to determine whether or not it was feasible to collect information on learning at the state level that would be useful to state policy leaders. This report provides a comprehensive account of the project, its findings, and conclusions, as well as information that will be useful to states that may wish to replicate the model. The model described in this report enables states to gather information that addresses two critical questions: (1) What is the "educational capital," or the knowledge and skills of the population, that states have available to them for developing or sustaining a competitive economy and vital civic life? and (2) How do all the colleges and universities in the state (that is, public, private, not-for-profit, and for-profit) contribute to the development of the state's educational capital? The report concludes that providing comparative state-by-state information about learning outcomes is not only feasible, but also important and useful for policy. A section on how to implement the model for college-level learning is appended. (Contains 3 tables and 14 figures.).