This issue of "Assessment Update" presents the following articles: (1) Organizing for Learning Improvement: What It Takes (Andrea M. Pope and Keston H. Fulcher); (2) Editor's Notes: The Leadership Imperatives for Assessment Excellence -- Imperative #2, Attracting and Retaining Talent to Support Assessment Excellence (Stephen P. Hundley);…

Over the last twenty years, colleges and universities have invested considerable effort and resources in programs that are designed to improve undergraduate learning and enhance student success. These programs range from first-year seminars and learning communities to service-learning programs and capstone courses. Given the costs associated with…

It is critical to a successful assessment process that faculty play an active role in the development and administration of assessment programs. That process requires a good deal of consensus among faculty members. Once outcomes and an instrument have been decided on and data collected, the faculty must also agree on a course of action to improve…

Creating a climate of assessment is critical for fostering institutional change. This article discusses the authors' work in the Foundations of Excellence in the First College Year project, which has confirmed (across very different campuses) the centrality of assessment in the development and implementation of successful programs to strengthen…

The standard approach to advisement in most departments at Rowan University is to assign students to faculty members. Some departments may have one person with release time to do all the advising. Properly examining the courses and programs in which undergraduate students are progressing is an appropriate topic of concern. One way to handle such…

During the 2006 fall semester, Nashville State Technical Community College (NSCC) completed a review of its general education program, including assessment of student success. A major advantage in assessing general education is that a number of measures are available for this purpose. A major disadvantage is that these measures rarely can be tied…

During the 2006 Spring semester, student affairs administrators at West Virginia University called on all student affairs units to develop assessment plans that focused on student learning. Student affairs units were required to begin their assessment plans by selecting at least one learning outcome to measure. The Assessment Council, ten…

In order to ease the academic and social transition, to forge a solid foundation for the rest of the academic career, and to increase the likelihood that students will persist through the second year and beyond, curricula and cocurricular programs are designed to meet the needs of first-year students and facilitate learning and development.…

While assessment of student learning outcomes has become standard operating procedure on virtually every campus, the driving forces for pursuing assessment remain primarily external. For that to change, campuses must evolve toward a culture of assessment based on the shared values and expectations that arise out of a community. The first step in…

The United States Military Academy (USMA) provides cadets with the intellectual foundation that they will need to succeed as military officers. The abilities to shape the physical world and to lead others in doing so are important competences of an Army officer. Therefore, the study of engineering and technology is fundamental to the education of…

The United States Military Academy (USMA) provides cadets with a liberal education designed to develop versatile and critical thinkers who can adapt to the professional and ethical challenges they will confront. Cadets' moral development is integrated throughout their West Point experience, to the point of being included as one of the USMA's…