Weekly Spark: Assessment Issues

The NUTN Weekly Spark for this week explores assessment issues in higher education. This week's Spark is presented by the Assessment and Evaluation Resource Group. If you're interested in assessment and evaluation issues, contact the AERG co-chairs Gary Brown (browng@wsu.edu) and John Sener (jsener@senerlearning.com).

Here's the Spark posted by Gary Brown:

While we've been busy in our jobs, a No Child Left Behind-College Edition has slipped into the higher education tent. I find it particularly disconcerting that it has been ushered in by a few of our own leaders. We heard the warning: "We'd better assess ourselves before somebody comes in and does 'it' to us." Unfortunately, the "it" in this case is the Voluntary System of Accountability. Not to be outdone, distance education has been invited to do something similar.

The problem here is that the "it" that we are talking about looks to me pretty much like what we would expect from whoever it is we might expect would be coming in to do "it" to us--a recommendation that we volunteer results so others can make simplistic comparisons between institutions.

I don't have a problem with the idea of accountability in principle.There are many stakeholders who are rightly asking us to be transparent in our work. But we shouldn't have to acquiesce to dumbing down the complexity of the educational enterprise for a few important reasons:

1. There is always more variance within institutions than between. Students, especially distance students, are taking courses from multiple institutions simultaneously, are variously prepared and motivated,working more, studying different things for different purposes, etc. In this reality, what do comparisons among institutions really tell a consumer? (And who is the final consumer or beneficiary of education,anyway?)
2. There is scant evidence that comparative assessments in isolation improve learning.
3. Testing isn't teaching. "Weighing the lamb doesn't fatten the lamb," as Jonathan Kozol says. (Incidentally, I believe Kozol is still on a partial hunger strike in protest over the deep damages to elementary schools resulting from the No Child Left Behind act.)
   
   All that said, I would like to suggest we adopt and promote the following assessment principle:
   
   Assessment that is based on embedded, authentic daily learning activities and that engages the judgment of the faculty and students(and sometimes other stakeholders) involved in those activities is almost always useful for promoting improvement. Assessment which does not do this is seldom useful and is often even dangerous.
   
   But what do you think?

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