TA K I N G O W N E R S H I P O F AC C R E D I TAT I O N
From Resistance to Responsibility
Peter Ewell (2002) traces the ‘‘birth’’ of assessment as the movement we
know today to 1985with the first National Conference on Assessment in
Higher Education cosponsored by the National Institute of Education (NIE)
and the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE). Not surpris-
ingly, the conference forums were marked by conflicting political and intel-
lectual themes. In spite of conflicts, the conference was focused on a unifying
theme, student learning, and included recommendations from research to
improve achievement. An interesting message was communicated at the con-
ference, one that has remained a strong theme of the assessment movement
to today. The message was that there was much to ‘‘learn’’ from assessment
data and ‘‘feedback on student performance’’ for both faculty and institu-
tions (Ewell, 2002, p. 7). That learning potential prompted a number of the
assessment projects described in the later chapters.
Related reports that focused on undergraduate curriculum and pedagogy
were disseminated around the time of the conference, and they extended the
message of the conference to not only learn from assessment but to use it to
become learner-centered. That theme has gathered strength and followers
and continues to nurture campus commitments to assessment today as we
write this chapter (Driscoll, 2005).
The resulting movement went beyond supporting the commitment to
assessment; it produced assessment with forms and functions that are au-
thentic and meaningful, embedded in or integrated with teaching and learn-
ing, and well aligned with the professional role and intentions of faculty.
Gardner, Csikszentmihalyi, and Damon (2001) speak of the importance of
alignment, or the fit, with our professional values as essential to ‘‘high qual-
ity’’ work and responsibility. Hence, the changes in assessment have not only
eased the resistance, they have moved assessment to a ‘‘collective responsibil-
ity’’ of faculty at many institutions. The changes also take the form of sig-
nificant advances in the quality of assessment.
Remaining Challenges
Ewell (2002) reminds us of the challenges of developing commitment to and
responsibility for assessment:
•Defining assessment in ways that promote its use for improvement
•Identify and ultimately develop credible and useful ways of assessing student learning and related processes.