Although portfolio evaluation is the key issue with which the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Missouri, Kansas City, currently struggles, the department has yet to develop a reliable quantitative method of assessing the portfolios. The department found itself ill-prepared to have the state immediately thrust it into new…

In May 1997, the Maine Legislature passed a comprehensive document that delineated expected educational outcomes for students, known as the Learning Results. This paper describes the components and philosophy of Maine's standards-development process. The Learning Results are based on Peter Senge's system model, which asserts that adoption of a new…

A South Dakota State University model for developing student outcomes assessment plans in undergraduate family science programs is presented. This model consists of several steps: clarification of the departmental mission, goals, and objectives; specification of desired student outcomes; development of reliable, valid measures of student outcomes;…

A symposium discussion of the use of the College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CSEQ) is presented. Intended for undergraduates at four-year colleges and universities, the CSEQ is a brief instrument that produces reliable and valid information for evaluation and assessment purposes. It asks students to indicate how often during the current…

Three factors in the 1990s will increase the importance of schools in the development of children. First, the character of schools will change as more students with special educational needs are integrated into mainstream classes. Second, efforts will be made to keep these students out of specialized teaching arrangements and in normal classrooms.…

Three presentations from the Third National Conference on Assessment in Higher Education are included. In "Assessment and Human Values: Confessions of a Reformed Number Cruncher," Alexander W. Astin, focuses on measuring education productivity, assessment lessons from the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, a talent-development…

The "value-added" conception of excellence in education, unlike any traditional view, focuses on the ability of a school or college to affect its students favorably and equitably. It focuses on changes in the student from the beginning to the end of the educational program. The "value-added" approach would involve the testing…

A variety of techniques are available for evaluating the success that implemented programs have in terms of achieving the expected and desired student outcomes and, by extension, the desired goals and objectives of the institution. Current approaches to such analysis are generally limited to the basic strategy of survey research. The two major…

State colleges and universities (SUs) are being forced by critics of higher education to reassess themselves and redirect their efforts. There is a movement to discover a simplistic and valid means of measuring excellence in higher education. Measuring student outcomes cuts through all the difficulties created by more standard attempts to find a…

This volume contains the text of six speeches selected from approximately 125 plenary talks that have been given over the past few years at more than 40 Freshman Year Experience Conferences by leading educators concerned about improving the first year undergraduate experience. In the first speech, "The Undergraduate Experience: Critical…

The quality of undergraduate education is presented as the key issue confronting colleges and universities nationwide, and it is noted that college faculty can do much to enhance the curriculum. It is up to them to see that the curriculum accomplishes the educational purpose it espouses and that it maintains integrity and coherence. However, when…

This paper describes three non-traditional higher education outcomes assessment models and identifies common characteristics of successful models of this type. Institutions considering how to meet state, national, and accrediting agency mandates have two kinds of non-traditional approaches available: formative and summative assessment. Formative…

The National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) conducted a national survey to determine the status of local campus initiatives in student outcomes assessment. Its goal was to determine whether assessment programs have been or are being developed, the objectives and source of initiation, and assessment techniques. Of…

Research findings from various countries on the role of schools in student development are reviewed, with an eye toward promoting a comparative model for research on the subject. First, research is discussed that indicates that schools have little or no effect relative to students' home background and individual qualities (the 1966 Coleman report…

Assessment of student learning and development has become a national issue. The status of local campus initiatives was considered in a national survey designed to determine (1) the extent to which assessment programs have been developed or are being developed, (2) the objectives and source of initiation, and (3) assessment techniques. Emphasis was…