ABSTRACT
In the widely and often quoted book, Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa (2010) conclude that college students “are failing to develop the higher-order cognitive skills that it is widely assumed college students should master. These findings are sobering and should be a cause for concern” (p. 121). Is this true? Are our colleges and universities failing in their mission? If so, why should an institution put scarce resources into assessing student learning outcomes when there are many other issues vying for attention? The answer to these questions lies in the very purpose of assessing student learning outcomes: using evidence for determining if students are achieving the desired outcomes, and for improving instruction based on the findings of assessment.
