ABSTRACT
Most college and university faculty members have not embraced outcomes assessment. In a 2009 survey of chief academic officers at the 2,809 regionally accredited two-and four-year undergraduate-degree-granting institutions in the U.S., two-thirds of the 1,518 respondents, and 80% of those at doctoral-research universities, said their greatest assessment-related need is “more faculty engagement” (Kuh & Ikenberry, 2009). While faculty do evaluate the work of individual students and give grades, they are reluctant-even resistant-to take a second look at student work in the aggregate to see what group strengths and weaknesses might suggest about the need for more attention to teaching a particular concept or for a different pedagogical approach.
