Commission Statement on Assessment of
Student Learning
The Commission posited in October 1989 that assessment of
student academic achievement is an essential component of every
organization’s effort to evaluate overall effectiveness. The experience
of the past fourteen years has demonstrated that it is key to improving student
learning. Assessment of student academic achievement is fundamental for all
organizations that place student learning at the center of their educational
endeavors.
Among the public’s many expectations of higher
education, the most basic is that students will learn, and in particular that
they will learn what they need to know to attain personal success and fulfill
their public responsibilities in the twenty-first century. The focus has moved
from considering resources as primary evidence of the quality of education to
expecting documentation of student learning. An organization’s focus on
achieved student learning is critical not only to promoting and improving
effective curricular and cocurricular learning experiences and to providing
evidence of the quality of educational experiences and programs, but also to
enhancing the public’s perception of the value of higher education.
The Commission appreciates that effective assessment can
take a variety of forms and involve a variety of processes. However, faculty
members, with meaningful input from students and strong support from the
administration and governing board, should have the fundamental role in
developing and sustaining systematic assessment of student learning. Their
assessment strategy should be informed by the organization’s mission and
include explicit public statements regarding the knowledge, skills, and
competencies students should possess as a result of completing course and
program requirements; it also should document the values, attitudes, and
behaviors faculty expect students to have developed. Moreover, while strong
assessment should provide data that satisfy any externally mandated
accountability requirements, its effectiveness in improving student learning
relies on its integration into the organization’s processes for program
review, departmental and organization planning, and unit and organizational
budgeting.
An organization’s commitment to and capacity for
effective assessment of student learning will figure more prominently than ever
in the accreditation relationship established between the Commission and that
organization. The Criteria for Accreditation, the Core Components, and the
Examples of Evidence adopted by the Commission in 2003 forge important new
links between assessment of student learning and accreditation. More than just
an effective strategy for accountability or an effective management process for
curriculum improvement, assessment of student achievement is essential for each
higher learning organization that values its effect on the learning of its
students. Therefore, an organization committed to understanding and improving
the learning opportunities and environments it provides students will be able
to document the relationship between assessment of and improvement in student
learning.
Adopted: February 21, 2003
For further information
contact Steven Crow,
Executive Director
scrow@hlcommission.org