What's Next on Accountability and Assessment

As administrations change in Washington, the pressures for accountability and assessment are not going away for higher education. Many projects started during the Bush administration -- or independent of it -- are taking off. And Congressional Democrats share an interest in learning more about what colleges do and using that information to promote improvements. Some educators are embracing these efforts, while others remain skeptical.

On Thursday, January 15 , at 2 p.m. Eastern, two experts from the Association of American Colleges and Universities -- Terry Rhodes and Debra Humphreys -- will explore the changing landscape for assessment, accountability and higher levels of student achievement.

Noting the perennial tensions between accountability/external reporting on the one hand, and assessment for better learning on the other, they predict that these two agendas will soon merge, and recommend that higher education invest in "accountability practices" that have demonstrated potential to deepen and broaden student achievement.

Among the topics that will be covered:

• Tensions between the accountability movement's focus on test scores and the "improvement movement's" focus on research that can be used to improve student learning, not just to judge institutional "results."
• The role of data in improving college level learning -- and the limits and possibilities for different kinds of assessment data.
• Recommendations in a newly re-issued AAC&U board statement on accountability and how that document can be used by colleges to frame discussions about learning outcomes and strategies for assessing essential learning outcomes and making improvement efforts more pervasive and transparent.
• Examples of assessment approaches that hold particular educational promise.
• The use of portfolios and other measures beyond standardized tests as assessment and accountability tools.

The presentation will focus not on any one kind of college (public, private, four-year, two-year), but on strategies that are broadly applicable. After a 30-minute presentation, our speakers will respond to questions for an additional 30 minutes. The entire event will last one hour.

This audioconference is ideal for:

• Presidents and provosts
• Academic affairs professionals
• Deans
• Department heads
• Institutional researchers
• Assessment experts
•Government relations

The "What's Next for Accountability and Assessment" audio conference costs $199 for a single telephone line; listen yourself or with a group around a conference table. Register early -- through Tuesday, January 6 -- and the cost is only $149. Upon registering, you'll be e-mailed information about how to dial in. A day before the conference, we'll send you a PowerPoint that you can use to follow along with the presentation. This is an audio-only conference; you will not need to be connected to the Internet to participate.

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About the presenters:

Terrel (Terry) L. Rhodes is vice president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities' Office for Quality, Curriculum, and Assessment. Previously, he was vice provost for curriculum and dean for undergraduate studies at Portland State University. He earned a Ph.D. in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Debra Humphreys is vice president for communications and public affairs at AAC&U, a role in which she leads advocacy efforts for the organization's Liberal Education and America's Promise campaign. Previously at the association, she led two of the organization's diversity programs. She earned her Ph.D. in English from Rutgers University.

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