Applying a clinical outcomes focus to academic assessment

Much of the progress we have made in addressing clinical outcomes issues in speech-language pathology and audiology can be applied when addressing assessment of outcomes in our educational programs.  Because of our experience with principles of functional assessment and documentation of efficacy, professionals in our field are well positioned to implement outcomes assessment and often are several steps ahead of the administrators requiring implementation of an assessment plan (Hallowell, 1996).   All academic units in the US with entry-level degree programs in audiology or speech-language pathology are now required to be actively engaged in identifying desired student outcomes, and developing or implementing plans for systematically assessing these outcomes.  We are widening the scope and validity of instruments and experiences being used, and, we hope, engaging in rich communications about using assessment to foster learning.

Hallowell, B. (1996). Innovative models of curriculum/instruction: Measuring educational outcomes. In Council of Graduate Programs   in Communication Sciences and Disorders, Proceedings of the seventeenth annual conference on graduate education, 37-44.

Last modified: 08/01/03