Coming to terms with the accountability versus improvement debate in assessment

✍ Scribed by Jeffery P. Aper; Steven M. Cuver; Dennis E. Hinkle

• Book ID: 104636232
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 813 KB
• Volume: 20
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0018-1560
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00136224

✦ Synopsis

Concerns about quality and accountability in higher education have led the majority of states to mandate student outcomes assessment. While many institutions have begun to address these requirements as matters of accountability, discussion in most state capitals seems to be more about program improvement than about summative evaluation. These dichotomous perspectives frame a fundamental debate over the nature and direction of the assessment movement in the United States. Accountability and improvement are twin concerns of effective assessment, but their coexistence depends upon the resolution of suspicions and different interpretations of the mission of higher education between state and institutional authorities.