Accountability Frank Schmidt, IFC Chair MU General Faculty Meeting October 26, 2006
New buzzword in American Higher Education SHEEO (State Higher Education Officials) – March, 2006www.sheeo.org Dept of Ed Commission on the Future of Higher Education (“Spellings Commission”) – September, 2006www.ed.gov NASULGC/AASCU: – August, 2006www.nasulg.org
Definition?? None of these documents explicitly define the term… Accountability = Assessment? Online Chronicle of Higher Ed forum “Question from Frank Schmidt, U of Missouri-Columbia: Please define ‘accountability’ and give an example.”
Charles Miller (Spellings Comm. Chair): “I think of an accountability system as measuring the performance or outcomes of a system or institution, which contains consequences or results. Those consequences can include rewards and recognition, or penalties.” (Emphases added) Political Agenda? Industrial model? One size fits all?
Principles of Accountability Measure the value added by MU education Document strengths; drive improvement Quality improvement not simple-minded comparisons. Faculty-Driven
Instruments Professional licensing exams – already used Open-Ended: –College Learning Assessment (CLA) - AAC&U; RAND Corp. Objective: –Measure of Academic Proficiency and Progress (MAPP) - ETS –Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP) – ETS Correlative: –National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) – Indiana U and Pew Charitable Trust
Process System: Intercampus Faculty Council Working Group MU Faculty Council (Rex Campbell, Bill Lamberson) –Meetings are open to all faculty Unit Policy Committees
Questions WHAT do we want to measure? What are we doing NOW? HOW to use the measures to improve quality?