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Collegiate Learning Assessment developers are in agreement that the test is most defi nitely not a silver bullet intended as a zero-sum assessment of all higher education student learning and should not be used as if it were. It is, they say, a step forward in measuring a signifi cant set of higher order skills critical to the broad spectrum of all student learning. Not coincidentally, they say, the Collegiate Learning Assessment’s focus—on the assessment of critical thinking, analytic reasoning, problem-solving and written communication through a series of performance tasks and writing prompts—is integral to the statement of mission of most colleges and universities. While debate within the academy regarding whether and how to assess student learning continues, it is clear that the attitude of “trust us, we know what we’re doing” is not going to satisfy those demanding change. “Timing is crucial,” warns Richard Hersh. “Lest the issues of learning assessment and institutional accountability be allowed to become the handmaiden of state and federal politics as many believed has occurred in the K-12 sector, the academy must act now. For this to happen, higher education needs to take the professional lead and control on issues of learning assessment and public accountability…”¹²

Time for a Reality Check
In an effort to assess the performance of their students with measures that could be benchmarked against the respective performances of other institutions, a total of 165 colleges and university systems nationwide have chosen to assume the mantle of professional leadership and control, in part by participating in the Collegiate Learning Assessment. While each of these institutions was motivated by its own particular agenda of issues and concerns, all decided that it was time for what Roger Benjamin refers to as “a reality check” to determine the degree to which they were meeting their respective institutional goals

The vast University of Texas System (UT), com-prising nine academic and six health science-related colleges,
selected the Collegiate Learning Assessment as a means to address the accountability concerns of the state legislature and to “show what we had to policymakers, parents, and students,” says Pedro Reyes, associate vice chancellor for academic planning and assessment. Seeking to measure learning outcomes that went beyond the content of specific courses, the UT system elected to participate in the Collegiate Learning Assessment in 2004–2005. The University of Texas System has participated in three cross-sectional administrations of the assessment thus far and will conduct a longitudinal study. “We envision that the Collegiate Learning Assessment will become part of the [University of Texas System] infrastructure,” says Reyes. The Collegiate Learning Assessment is one element of a four-pronged UT effort to address the twin issues of accountability and transparency. The University of Texas System also uses the National Survey of Student Engagement to assess student engagement and satisfaction, licensure exam pass rates to help determine whether graduates are prepared to enter the workforce in certain regulated professions, and the rates of postgraduate employment or further study. “We publish Collegiate Learning Assessment results to the world,” says Reyes, a practice that “begins to get the faculty’s attention.”

Emphasizing that leadership and a willingness to invest resources are essential to addressing the complex issue of accountability, Reyes credits University of Texas System chancellor Mark D. Yudof with providing both. The provost, deans, and faculty were encouraged to look at the Collegiate Learning Assessment reports, he says, and to ask themselves: What is it we need to do to meet national standards? “The individual colleges learned a great deal about themselves,” observes Reyes. The Collegiate Learning Assessment results for University of Texas, San Antonio, an open admissions institution, were particularly informative because they helped the college “see how much [it] has contributed to student development.”

Arizona State University executive vice president and provost of the University Elizabeth Capaldi shares Reyes’s view of the Collegiate Learning Assessment’s usefulness. “We owe it to the public to measure quality in higher education,” she says, adding, “We want to be able to show the effectiveness of [the institution] even when students who enter score low.” Arizona State University has an enrollment of 63,000 students at its three campuses, and offers 250 majors. “The truly meaningful thing is to educate them all,” she says. “So much of what we think about higher education is elitist,” observes Capaldi, and at many elite private colleges, the question frequently asked is “How high are the SAT scores of our students?” At Arizona State University, where the mission, according to Capaldi, is “To educate as many qualified students as possible,” this is not the relevant question. “The Collegiate Learning Assessment is a very smart test,” says Capaldi, because of what it measures, namely, higher order thinking and writing skills. For Arizona State University faculty, the Collegiate Learning Assessment is viewed as a measure of the university and its effectiveness in helping students to develop these skills. “This puts to rest personal fears,” she says, and encourages faculty to look at how courses in the various disciplines have or have not contributed to learning outcomes.

 

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