Brief history of trends in accountability and pressure for assessment in colleges and universities

For the past decade or so, we have been in the midst of a US nationwide movement for greater accountability in higher education.  While the push to engage in such assessment may come from external forces, such as legislatures, campus presidents, or accrediting bodies, the impetus for attention to assessing what students are learning came from within the academy.  The publication of Involvement in Learning (Study Group on the Conditions of Excellence in Higher Education, 1984), written by a group of distinguished academics, addressed the need for reform in higher education in order to assure and demonstrate that the college experience makes a positive difference.  Several influential publications followed in the same vein (Boyer, 1987; Wingspread Group on Higher Education, 1993).  A common conclusion of all of these analyses is the need for better assessment and feedback to effect educational improvement.  Combined with these internal calls for self-examination and improvement, external constituencies have increasingly demanded more accountability.  As higher education has come under increasing attack from politicians and the press, there is a need to demonstrate that a college education is, indeed, a good investment of state and personal resources. 

Boyer. E.L. (1987).  College:  The Undergraduate Experience.   The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.  New York:  Harper Collins.

Wingspread Group on Higher Education, (1993).  An American Imperative:  Higher Expectations for Higher Education.  Racine, Wis.:  Johnson Foundation.

This text adapted from:

Hallowell, B. & Lund, N. (1998).  Fostering program improvements through a focus on educational outcomes.  In Council of Graduate Programs in Communication Sciences and Disorders, Proceedings of the twenty-first annual conference on graduate education, 32-56.

Last modified: 08/01/03