Spellings Commission Report Arlene Carney

Key Issues Access Cost and affordability Financial aid Learning

Learning Issues Graduation rate – 66% within 6 years Achievement gaps between white & Asian students & black & Hispanic students Employers say graduates not prepared for the workplace

Learning Recommendations Change culture of reputation to culture of performance Recommend the creation of a consumer-friendly information database on higher education searchable by students, families, policymakers –Common format

Accountability Measures Should universities be held accountable for student learning? Why or why not?

VSA Voluntary System of Accountability All institutions use same data report structure for comparability. Must choose one measure of student engagement and one measure of student learning

Learning Measures Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) MAAP

Engagement Measure National Survey of Student Engagement

Questions What is academic accountability? Name three potential measures that we already have across the University. What do those results look like? What is your impression of how well the UM is doing?

Accountability Measures Faculty Responsibility –What is it? –How far do faculty go? Faculty Responsiveness –Will faculty engage in assessing and reporting learning outcomes? –Consequences if we don’t?

UMTC Student Learning Outcomes Must faculty address them? What happens if we ignore them?

Results Now FIPSE grant to study the CLA and the MAAP to see if they measure the same thing. These measure cross-sections of freshmen and seniors to see if value is added.

Challenges Culture of competition or culture of cooperation? Can we build a new culture of evidence or do we continue with a culture of disciplinary silos for learning? What would faculty do with a No Undergraduate Left Behind policy?