1. The Commonwealth has a vital interest in what colleges and universities do and in the results they achieve. Institutions should, therefore, report to the state at-id inform the public of their accomplishments in the areas of teaching, research, and public service. These reports should be structured by and consistent with the mission statements, strategic plans, and explicit goals of the individual institutions. The institutions have the obligation to provide clear and understandable assessment information.

2. The State Council of Higher Education, to which all assessment reports are eventually funneled, should prepare an annual assessment of the accomplishments and failings of the institutions of higher education. This report should be made widely available to the legislature, the executive branch, and the public.

3. The Commonwealth should continue to allow diversity in the assessment programs of the colleges and universities, consistent with their varied missions and goals. But institutions should be held accountable by the Commonwealth - as they are by both regional and professional accrediting agencies - for the extent to which they assess their programs, use data to improve those programs, and achieve their missions and goals.

4. Since institutions will have varied assessment programs, the State Council of Higher Education should hold annual forums for all institutions to highlight and promote the best practices developed by the individual institutions.

5. The assessment process itself should be economical in terms of time and money, and should be consistent with the workings of the institutions and with the criteria required by other agencies, including and especially the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools which mandates the most rigorous institutional effectiveness criterion in the nation.

6. Both quantitative and qualitative assessments have value. The use of benchmarks with peer institutions and the use of external reviewers from peer institutions have value in providing a context for judgements and numbers.

7. Institutions must he able to demonstrate that they have wed assessment data to improve educational programs. services, and operations and that they are committed to continuous quality improvement. Reporting should be consistent with the Institutional Effectiveness Criterion of the Southern Association of Colleges.

8. As appropriate to the mission of the institution, explicit results, coordinated to the strategic plan, should be given for each of the three areas of institutional responsibility: teaching, research, and public service.

9. Performance criteria should be developed by each institution to assess results in research as consistent with the institution's mission.

10. Performance criteria and a reporting system should be developed by each institution to assess results in public service.

11. In the area of teaching,
    • Institutions should be asked to certify the integrity of each degree program. They should publish a statement of what skills and knowledge each graduate of each program should minimally have in order to receive a degree. These skills and knowledge should be defined in terms of both general education and specialty. Statements of the requirements for the degree should include a rationale for each requirement and a statement of how fulfillment of that requirement is accomplished and assessed.

    • Assessment of teaching should include all undergraduate (including professional) and graduate (including professional) programs.

      Institutional assessment programs should repaint assessment data in at least the following areas: per5istence rates; completion rates: graduate school and professional school attendance rates; pass rates on exit exams; other performance- based learning outcomes measures; and student, alumni, and employer satisfaction.

    • An institution must demonstrate through assessment data the value added to its graduates in each program in areas such as writing, quantitative reasoning, problem-solving, and computer skills.

12. The overall purpose of assessment, while containing important elements of institutional accountability to the Commonwealth and its citizens, is to provide a means of assisting colleges arid universities to achieve their missions. In this the Commonwealth and its colleges and universities must be partners working

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Posted: July 22, 1999
By The Educational Policy Institute of Virginia Tech
sjanosik@vt.edu