Originally posted on January 26, 2017, on LindaSuskie.com
A new survey of chief academic officers (CAOs) conducted by Gallup and Inside Higher Education led me to the sobering conclusion that, after a generation of work on assessment, we in U.S. higher education remain very, very far from pervasively conducting truly meaningful and worthwhile assessment.
Because we've been working on this so long, as I reviewed the results of this survey, I was deliberately tough. The survey asked CAOs to rate the effectiveness of their institutions on a variety of criteria using a scale of very effective, somewhat effective, not too effective, and not effective at all. The survey also asked CAOs to indicate their agreement with a variety of statements on a five-point scale, where 5 = strongly agree, 1 = strongly disagree, and the other points are undefined. At this point I would have liked to see most CAOs rate their institutions at the top of the scale: either “very effective” or “strongly agree.” So these are the results I focused on and, boy, are they depressing.
Quality of Assessment Work
Less than a third (30%) of CAOs say their institution is very effective in identifying and assessing student outcomes. ‘Nuff said on that!
Value of Assessment Work
Here the numbers are really dismal. Less than 10% (yes, ten percent, folks!) of CAOs strongly agree that:
Faculty members value assessment efforts at their college (4%).
The growth of assessment systems has improved the quality of teaching and learning at their college (7%).
Assessment has led to better use of technology in teaching and learning (6%). (Parenthetically, that struck me as an odd survey question; I had no idea that one of the purposes of assessment was to improve the use of technology in T&L!)
And just 12% strongly disagree that their college’s use of assessment is more about keeping accreditors and politicians happy than it is about teaching and learning.
And only 6% of CAOs strongly disagree that faculty at their college view assessment as requiring a lot of work on their parts. Here I’m reading something into the question that might not be there. If the survey asked if faculty view teaching as requiring a lot of work on their parts, I suspect that a much higher proportion of CAOs would disagree because, while teaching does require a lot of work, it’s what faculty generally find to be valuable work--it's what they are expected to do, after all. So I suspect that, if faculty saw value in their assessment work commensurate with the time they put into it, this number would be a lot higher.
Using Evidence to Inform Decisions
Here’s a conundrum:
Over two thirds (71%) of CAOs say their college makes effective use of data used to measure student outcomes,
But only about a quarter (26%) said their college is very effective in using data to aid and inform decision making.
And only 13% strongly agree that their college regularly makes changes in the curriculum, teaching practices, or student services based on what it finds through assessment.
So I’m wondering what CAOs consider effective uses of assessment data!
Furthermore,
About two thirds (67%) of CAOs say their college is very effective in providing a quality undergraduate education.
But less than half (48%) say it’s very effective in preparing students for the world of work,
And only about a quarter (27%) say it’s very effective in preparing students for engaged citizens.
And (as I've already noted) only 30% say it’s very effective in identifying and assessing student outcomes.
How can CAOs who admit their colleges are not very effective in preparing students for work or citizenship engagement or assessing student learning nonetheless think their college is very effective in providing a quality undergraduate education? What evidence are they using to draw that conclusion?
And,
While less than half of CAOs saying their colleges are very effective in preparing students for work,
Only about a third (32%) strongly agree that their institution is increasing attention to the ability of its degree programs to help students get a good job.
My Conclusions
After a quarter century of work to get everyone to do assessment well:
Assessment remains spotty; it is the very rare institution that is doing assessment pervasively and consistently well.
A lot of assessment work either isn’t very useful or takes more time than it’s worth.
We have not yet transformed American higher education into an enterprise that habitually uses evidence to inform decisions.