American higher education needs a major reframing of student learning outcomes assessment Dynamic changes are underway in American higher education. New providers, emerging technologies, cost concerns, student debt, and nagging doubts about quality all call out the need for institutions to show evidence of student learning. From scholars at the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA), Using Evidence of Student Learning to Improve Higher Education presents a reframed conception and approach to student learning outcomes assessment. The authors explain why it is counterproductive to view collecting and using evidence of student accomplishment as primarily a compliance activity. Today's circumstances demand a fresh and more strategic approach to the processes by which evidence about student learning is obtained and used to inform efforts to improve teaching, learning, and decision-making. Whether you're in the classroom, an administrative office, or on an assessment committee, data about what students know and are able to do are critical for guiding changes that are needed in institutional policies and practices to improve student learning and success. Use this book to: * Understand how and why student learning outcomes assessment can enhance student accomplishment and increase institutional effectiveness * Shift the view of assessment from being externally driven to internally motivated * Learn how assessment results can help inform decision-making * Use assessment data to manage change and improve student success Gauging student learning is necessary if institutions are to prepare students to meet the 21st century needs of employers and live an economically independent, civically responsible life. For assessment professionals and educational leaders, Using Evidence of Student Learning to Improve Higher Education offers both a compelling rationale and practical advice for making student learning outcomes assessment more effective and efficient.

"Student Success in College" describes policies, programs, and practices that a diverse set of institutions have used to enhance student achievement. This book clearly shows the benefits of student learning and educational effectiveness that can be realized when these conditions are present. Based on the Documenting Effective Educational Practice (DEEP) project from the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University, this book provides concrete examples from twenty institutions that other colleges and universities can learn from and adapt to help create a success-oriented campus culture and learning environment.

Involving Colleges details the extracurricular environments of fourteen diverse involving colleges and universities and shows how and where successful conditions and characteristics can be adapted to institutions to complement the institution's unique educational purpose and mission.

Assessing Conditions to Enhance Educational Effectiveness

Are you satisfied with your institution's graduation rates? Does your institution adequately challenge and support all students and foster their learning and personal development?

A companion volume to Student Success in College--the book that describes the policies, programs, and practices of twenty colleges and universities that have created success-oriented campus cultures and learning environments--this next-step resource will help an institution assess whether these conditions exist. The authors present the Inventory for Student Engagement and Success (ISES), a self-guided framework for conducting a comprehensive, systematic, institutionwide analysis. The process also can be applied to areas within an institution, such as a school or college within a university, an academic or student affairs division, or a department or program. The ISES includes sets of diagnostic queries that focus on the six properties and conditions common to high-performing schools as well as the five clusters of effective educational practices featured on the National Survey of Student Engagement. Suggestions are offered to illustrate how the information generated from the ISES process can be used for various purposes including accreditation self-studies, program reviews, staff development, faculty and governing board retreats, and strategic planning.

The Inventory for Student Engagement and Success offers a practical approach for enhancing educational effectiveness and can be used to Focus institutional improvement or strategic planning efforts Inform self-studies for accreditation and program reviews Augment student learning outcomesassessment and related efforts to measure institutional performance