Assessment and Program Review
in the Office of Institutional Research
American Association for Higher Education's
Principles of Good Practice for Assessing Student
Learning
- The assessment of student learning begins with educational
values.
- Assessment is most effective when it reflects an understanding
of learning as multidimensional, integrated, and revealed in performance over
time.
- Assessment works best when the programs it seeks to
improve have clear, explicitly stated purposes.
- Assessment requires attention to outcomes but also and
equally to the experiences that lead to those outcomes.
- Assessment works best when it is ongoing, not episodic.
- Assessment fosters wider improvement when representatives
from across the educational community are involved.
- Assessment makes a difference when it begins with issues
of use and illuminates questions that people really care about.
- Assessment is most likely to lead to improvement when
it is part of a larger set of conditions that promote change.
- Through assessment, educators meet responsibilities to students and
to the public.