WASC met last week and the theme of the conference was “Provocative Questions…Courageous Answers.” IHE has this article about what sounds like a pretty thoughtful panel on why assessment is not working.
“It’s not just that faculty members are crabby and hate change … There are good reasons why faculty hate it. It’s real and it’s earned,” Jankowski said. (An Inside Higher Ed survey of faculty members last year, for instance, found that 59 percent of respondents agreed that assessment efforts “seem primarily focused on satisfying outside groups such as accreditors or politicians,” rather than serving students.) Essays like this also reflect faculty disdain.
There is a certain irony to having the head of NILOA lament the state assessment, but it’s a step in the right direction.