The Texas experience with accountability and student learning assessment

✍ Scribed by Pedro Reyes; Roberta Rincon

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2008
• Weight: 62 KB
• Volume: 2008
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0271-0579
• DOI: 10.1002/ir.261

✦ Synopsis

The national focus on the quality of higher education centers directly on student learning outcomes. The Spellings Commission on the Future of Higher Education recommended that higher education institutions measure student learning and make learning assessment results available to the public (U.S. Department of Education, 2006). The recent rollout of the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA) aims to do just that. It contains a component that requires participating institutions to assess their students using one of three standardized learning assessment instruments.

In Texas, the accountability movement was initiated by Governor Rick Perry, who issued an executive order in 2004 requiring all public institutions of higher education to work with the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to create a comprehensive system of accountability. Its purpose was one of public accountability: to the citizens of Texas, the governor, and the legislature. By the end of the year, the board had rolled out its online accountability system.

The University of Texas (UT) System began looking into the need to become more transparent and accountable to its stakeholders earlier than other state and national organizations. In 2000, UT System regent Charles Miller led the move toward the development of a systemwide accountability system focused on three institutional missions: learning and teaching, 49 4