Institutions of higher education are asked to consider how their work can advance equity in institutional outcomes. Assessment, too, has been asked to consider the ways in which traditional student assessment "privileges and validates certain types of learning and evidence of learning over others" (Montenegro and Jankowski 2017, p. 5).…

The Grand Challenges for Assessment in Higher Education project is a collaborative effort of 10 endorsing organizations and over 400 volunteers to increase the extent to which assessment (1) supports equity; (2) is visible, actionable, and drives innovation; and (3) guides rapid improvements in pedagogy (Singer-Freeman and Robinson 2020). Several…

The University of Missouri Kansas City (UMKC) is an urban research university with a special emphasis on fostering diversity. In 2021, the Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence created a Faculty Fellows program to develop comprehensive resources and support in four areas: teaching and learning, service and engagement, research and creativity,…

Higher education leaders face growing pressure to demonstrate the return on investment (ROI) of not only their institution but also each academic program offering. With increasing accountability and limited time for meaningful reflection on student learning and development, now is the time to rethink how a quasi-annual academic program review…

Assessment and institutional research offices have too much data and too little time. Standard reporting often crowds out opportunities for innovative research. Fortunately, advancements in data science now offer a clear solution. It is equal parts technique and philosophy. The first and easiest step is to modernize data work. This column…

The Grand Challenges Project supports global collaborations that inform equitable practices for assessment practitioners in higher education while identifying evidence-informed solutions. One goal named in the project is to leverage assessment findings to increase equity in higher education. This article focuses on the results from the Equity…

Open-ended responses to surveys can be highly beneficial to higher education institutions, providing clarity and context that quantitative data can sometimes lack. However, analyzing open-ended responses typically takes time and manpower most institutional assessment offices do not have to spare. This study focused on finding a potential solution…

Can leveraging an innovative approach to gathering information on co-curricular learning and learning outcomes assessment practices lead to impactful change? This question guided the implementation and operationalization of the Spartan Experience Record (SER) at Michigan State University (MSU). The SER both provides undergraduate students with a…

Following a set of state meetings held throughout fall 2020, the Virginia Education Assessment Collaborative (VEAC) decided to offer a mini-conference in November 2020 to round out offerings and to buttress conversation around topics of high need and interest to Educator Preparation Providers (EPPs). Leveraging the familiar process of the…

The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (UWL), as a public comprehensive regional university of approximately 10,500 students, utilized National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) data regarding advising to jumpstart several key advancements that have yielded positive improvements as indicated in the most recent NSSE assessment data. Despite strong…

This issue of "Assessment Update" presents a three part series on fixing assessments. In Part 1: "Assessment Standards are Broken," David Eubanks highlights the challenges with the assessment standards articulated by institutional accreditors. In this article, Part 2: Megan R. Good, discusses the opportunity costs faced and…

This issue of "Assessment Update" presents the following articles: (1) What Makes a Performance Indicator an Equity-Driven, High-Performance Indicator? (Marilee Bresciani Ludvik); (2) Editor's Notes: The Leadership Imperatives for Assessment Excellence: Imperative #1, Making Assessment Excellence a Strategic Institutional Priority…