ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the coordinating role of institution- and program-level assessment committees that initiate, orchestrate, and sustain cycles of inquiry into student learning. It establishes collaboration as a principle that underlies the work of assessment committees and their relationship with members of the academic community. The chapter promotes institution- and program-level dialogue about teaching and learning as the context for embedding assessment. It guides the development of curricular and co-curricular maps and inventories of practice that document where and how students learn what an educational community values. An assessment committee shapes or informs the work of other campus entities such as centers for teaching and learning, now often named centers for teaching, learning, and assessment, or centers for faculty development to ensure that there are sustained educational opportunities for current, new, full-time, and part-time faculty and staff. Building institutional knowledge across the assessment process promotes dialogue about teaching and learning and the practices that contribute to students’ learning.
