Higher Education Assessments: Leadership Matters

Higher Education Assessments: Leadership Matters reflects the work of a select group of researchers, scholars, and practitioners in higher education assessment with the goal of identifying strategies that assist senior campus leaders as they respond to the challenges of a changing economic landscape and political climate. The contributors, experts in the field, bring to the forefront key issues relevant to advancing assessments in higher education-principles that culminate in improving student learning and development. Kramer and Swing provide a tool for presidents, vice presidents, provosts, and deans to determine which areas of assessment matter most in their institutions and how they can measure progress in aligning claims with outcomes. The contributors deftly address assessment in student affairs, documentation of student learning, student engagement to bridge learner outcomes, assessment in the disciplines, assessments that can transform a culture, and putting students first as partners in the learning enterprise. In doing so, they have focused on what a campus president and his or her team need to know and do to lead assessment successfully on campus and as they set the tone for and facilitate institutional assessments.