In response to Molly Worthen’s article in the Time’s Sunday Review, Ted Mitchell who is President of the American Council on Education, writes this:
To the Editor:
Re “No Way to Measure Students,” by Molly Worthen (Sunday Review, Feb. 23), criticizing “a bureaucratic behemoth known as learning outcomes assessment”:
Learning assessment in higher education is simply an effort to document that students have indeed learned something. More work for faculty? You bet. It’s a lot harder than giving out the As, Bs and Cs that have been the traditional measure of student success. But it’s also far more meaningful for students, parents, policymakers and employers.
As higher education costs climb and student borrowing increases, it should come as no surprise that colleges and universities are under more pressure to demonstrate what students have gained. Thanks to the work of many dedicated faculty members and accreditors, colleges and universities are providing a richer and more complete picture of student learning than in the past. This is important and worthwhile.
Sure, we can always do better. But the demand that colleges assess learning will not slacken. One hopes faculty members will lend a hand to these efforts.
TED MITCHELL, WASHINGTON
As always, assessment’s defenders refuse to engage with the substance of the criticism directed at assessment.