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As public spending on higher education has dramatically increased, and state subsidies for student loans and other ways of supporting higher education have grown, the need for assessment in higher education has assumed a new importance. Increasingly, state governments are demanding results-driven models in exchange for funding. The Federal Government has revealed plans to likewise condition support on measurable results, both in terms of educational effectiveness and cost. The demands of America’s fiscal situation places a great pressure on shaping educational and scholarly practices towards profit-driven ends, and consequently, these increasing requirements and pressures eventually will lead to extraordinary changes in public policy and public accountability for higher education, Revolutionary assessment practices in higher education represent a powerful tool that enables the educational system to sustain or advance the fundamental work of serving the public good while assuring cost sustainability and educational quality. Hundreds of the colleges and universities are employing serious and often unique assessment practices at different institutional levels, with the aim of identifying the best practices, in education, in cost control, distance learning and in student retention. Generally speaking, assessment practices in higher education are intended to strengthen the relationship between higher education systems and society and to reassure the broader society that higher education is a good investment that serves the public good. Finding the best practices in student retention, distance learning, technology implementation and other critical areas requires a broad-based effort that encompasses all the aspects: systems, process and institutions of education, as well as individuals, as basic elements of society. Serving this purpose and leading change is a matter of strategic alliances and networks between a wide selection of stakeholders within the education system and beyond. Accurate benchmarking data on costs and benefits of technology implementation, distance learning developments and other key areas lead to improved results that can be critical in assuring a continuation of public and private funding, Assessment efforts should be aimed at providing results that demonstrate the value added of an institution’s efforts: they focus on a wide array of elements that influence institutional performance; tests, distance learning, technology implementation, resource utilization, post graduation results in jobs and further education, cost control and other areas. Organized assessment efforts that demonstrate institutional effectiveness are more important than ever before. Assessment practices in higher education should work together to the Common Agenda of improving and demonstrating (both are critical) institutional effectiveness. The Common Agenda promotes institution-wide best practices in student retention, cost control, tutoring, testing, use of educational technology so that all of these elements can be assessed and all contribute to the goal of better and more cost effective educational practices that can be demonstrated, often quantitatively. Using assessment data, learning statistics, as well as many other tools, the Common Agenda aligns and enhances the common effort within and beyond education and challenges this system to take an active role in addressing the pressing issues of society. For more resources about assessment practices in higher education or about best practices in student retention, as well as regarding distance learning statistics please review these pages.
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assessment practices in higher education, best practices in student retention, distance learning statistics,
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