Assessment and Public Accountability

Assessing academic department efficiency at a public university

“…Indeed, state involvement in higher education assessment has been expanding at a rapid rate (Astin, 1993). Under the rubric of 'accountability' several states have now passed laws that require higher education institutions to demonstrate effectiveness, efficiency, sound fiscal stewardship, and proven performance (Ewell, 1991;Lively, 1992).…”

Organizational Learning and the Case for Knowledge‐Based Systems

“…It has also been proposed that institutions need to shift their perspective from one that views accountability as mere bureaucratic reporting to one that foresees a connection between accountability measures and improved teaching and learning, as well as to move beyond state reporting requirements by incorporating research findings that specify areas and procedures for improvement (MacDougall and Friedlander, 1990;Ewell 1991;Wellman, 2001). Subsequently, research cultures are able to confront accountability with a new perspective.…”

External Systems and Mandates for Change: the Virginia experience

“…While these mandates were originally intended to address both state needs for accountability and institutional needs for improvement, the higher education community in most states, following the lead of Colorado and Virginia, managed to convince legislatures that a decentralised, assessment-for-improvement approach would meet the needs of all parties; only two of the state initiatives mandated common testing and direct comparisons of student performance (Ewell, 1991). Thus, assessment programmes were designed primarily to improve academic programmes: within the institution the question became, 'where are we weak and how can we improve those areas?'…”