The Intersection of Assessment,
Accreditation, and Accountability:
Faculty Unite!
Teeanna Rizkallah, Ph.D
Chair, Assessment and Educational Effectiveness Committee
(CSUF)
XIX Assessment Conference - CSUF
Town and Gown…
XIX Assessment Conference - CSUF
Some definitions….
• Assessment – Enhancing student success
through program evaluation
• Accreditation – Incentivizing program
development through self-study
• Accountability – Demonstrating program
effectiveness to external stakeholders
XIX Assessment Conference - CSUF
Accountability….
Accountable to who?
• Students
• Alumni
• Community
• Funding sources
– Private
– Public
Accountable for what?
• Quantitative
measurements
–
–
–
–
Enrollments
Access
Retention
Graduation rates
• Qualitative
– Personal and social
growth
XIX Assessment Conference - CSUF
Accountability….
What level of
accountability?
• Description
• Explanation
• Justification
What are the
consequences of
providing an account?
Who should provide the
account?
XIX Assessment Conference - CSUF
Accountability….
Competing goals (academic)
• Increasing access to
underrepresented groups
• Innovative (i.e.,
experimental) pedagogies
• Research & external grants
competition
• Improved performance
regardless of student
preparation
Competing goals (external)
• Elected leaders
• Oversight boards and
agencies (i.e., accrediting
bodies)
• Students & parents
• Ranking systems
• Competition against new
educational systems
(MOOCs; for-profit
education)
XIX Assessment Conference - CSUF
Assessment….
Student achievement must be measured on a
“valued [sic] added” basis that takes into account
students’ academic baseline when assessing their
results. This information should be made available
to students, and reported publicly in aggregate
form to provide consumers and policy makers an
accessible, understandable way to measure the
relative effectiveness of different colleges and
universities.
- US Department of Education, Commission on the
Future of Higher Education (2005)
XIX Assessment Conference - CSUF
Assessment….
But…isn’t assessment about enhancing
student success through
program evaluation?
XIX Assessment Conference - CSUF
Accreditation….
Public/private accrediting was considered
• Too private
• Too process oriented
• Too little interested in bottom line competencies
Recommendation: “A more transparent, outcomes-based,
and accountable accreditation system based on student
performance.”
- US Department of Education, Commission on the Future
of Higher Education (2005)
XIX Assessment Conference - CSUF
Accreditation…
But…isn’t accreditation about incentivizing
program development through self-study?
XIX Assessment Conference - CSUF
Indicators of quality
Five Dimensions of Quality (Suskie, 2015)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Relevance
Community
Focus and aspiration
Evidence
Improvement
XIX Assessment Conference - CSUF
Indicators of quality
Relevance
• Integrity
Community
• People
– Put students first
– Meeting the needs of key
stakeholders
– Keep our promises
– Serve the public good
• Stewardship
– Ensure the college’s health
– Deploy resources effectively
– Deploy resources efficiently
–
–
–
–
Respect
Communication
Collaboration
Collegiality
• Leadership
– Focus on college’s best
interests
– Interactive leadership
– Ongoing development
XIX Assessment Conference - CSUF
Indicators of quality
Focus and aspiration
• Purpose
– Who are we (as a college)?
– Why are we?
• Goals and plans
– Where are we going?
– How will we get there?
• Successful students
– Who are they?
– Where are they going?
– What helps them learn?
XIX Assessment Conference - CSUF
Indicators of quality
Evidence
• Gauging student success
though measurements
• Choosing measurements
that are useful
• Setting and justifying
(defining) targets for
success
• Sharing evidence with
stakeholders (transparancy)
Improvement
• Recognize and celebrate
successes
• Use evidence to
– Enhance program quality
– Deploy resources effectively
– Refine goals and targets
• Value community
– Value efforts to change
– Don’t overvalue perfection
– Regroup and reflect
XIX Assessment Conference - CSUF
And finally…
DOCUMENT IT!
and OWN IT!
Faculty can and should control assessment
efforts, especially those that lead to
accreditation, to ensure input into the
accountability conversation!
XIX Assessment Conference - CSUF
Town and Gown, married at last?
XIX Assessment Conference - CSUF
Sources….
•
•
•
•
•
•
Drisko, J.W. (2014). Competencies and their assessment. Journal of Social Work
Education, 50, 414-426. DOI: 10.1080.10437797.2014.917927
Feingold, R.S. (2013). Vision in an age of accountability. Quest, 65(4), 385-393. DOI:
10.1080/00336297.2013.834832
Hoffman, E. (September 2013). Ratings, quality, and accreditation: Policy
implications for educational communications and technology programs in a digital
age, 57(5), 47-54. DOI: 10.1007/s11528-013-0691-8
Rabovsky, T. (2014). Support for performance-based funding: The role of political
ideology, performance, and dysfunctional information environments. Public
Administration Review, 74(6), 761-774. DOI: 10.111/puar.12274
Rasmussen, P. and Zou, Y. (2014). The development of educational accountability
in China and Denmark. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 22(121).
http://dx.doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v22.1693
Suskie, L. (2015). Five dimensions of quality: A common sense guide to
accreditation and accountability. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
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