ABSTRACT
Nonprofit and philanthropic studies academic programs must deal with multiple regulatory and accrediting bodies requesting assessment and program data. They also are accountable to students, alumni, faculty, administrators, and the nonprofit community. In order to provide assessment and program data, nonprofit academic program directors can follow traditional assessment methods of (1) identifying who will be involved in the assessment process, (2) developing [or revising] program learning outcomes, (3) connecting program learning outcomes to course learning outcomes and assignments, (4) determining the right internal and external assessments to measure learning outcomes, and (5) continuous program improvement. Although these methods are helpful for nonprofit academic program assessment, they tend to leave out key constituents and nonprofit community members. Therefore, using critical perspectives, this chapter proposes including participatory evaluation along with traditional approaches to nonprofit academic program assessment to enhance student learning and nonprofit community impact.
