The title essay comes from early on in Ross’ time as a VP. He spread out every departmental budget request on his dining room table so he could contemplate department priorities. “At some point, an errant breeze blew some sheets onto the floor where they were chewed up by my golden retriever Rebecca,” he recalls. While announcing the new budget, someone asked about a $100,000 request that was missing. Ross found himself using an excuse not unlike ones his former students had used about late reports: “The dog ate my budget.”
Two other memorable tales: “My First (and Only) $1,000,000,000 Check” (about donors’ hesitation on large, unrestricted gifts), and “Friendly Cutthroat Competition” (about meeting with other institutions to compare fundraising performance). —Melissa Ezarik
AAC&U Builds Framework for Meaningful Assessment
THE PUSH TOWARD ASSESSMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY BEGUN under Education Secretary Margaret Spellings’ Commission on the Future of Higher Education will no doubt continue under her proposed successor, Arne Duncan. While there can be little argument that some measure of performance and outcome is needed, just how that measure is achieved—especially at the college level—is still hotly debated.
The American Association of Colleges and Universities has issued a set of recommendations for campus action to ensure that assessment and outcome measures have real meaning.
AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider says the debate so far has been “shallow” and does not address the fact that higher education is of a different nature than K-12 education.
“We’re challenging the notion that standardized testing and the reporting of aggregate results from those tests should be the centerpiece of the accountability movement. Some states are moving in that direction,” Schneider says. “Standardized tests can be a supplement to accountability frameworks, but they can’t be the whole story. College-level learning cannot be evaluated with multiple-choice tests.”
The group recommends that assessment be anchored in the curriculum that students are actually taking, and not based on generic tests that have almost no connection to their coursework.
In the report, “Our Students’ Best Work: A Framework for Accountability Worthy of Our Mission,” AAC&U lays the groundwork for how to design an assessment and accountability framework that will both strengthen student achievement and also show what students can actually do with their learning.
“We know that many campuses are still in the early stages of their work on assessment and accountability,” Schneider says. “Campuses are actively looking for a framework that will be educationally meaningful to faculty, useful to students, and closely tied to the goals of the institution.”
The framework is based on a full-picture approach to assessment. It identifies aims and outcomes and then adapts those to the programs students are actually studying. The results can be used to strengthen programs and practices.
“There are two strategies out there. One is the ‘send-a-number-to-somebody-soon’ strategy of assessment. The other is the use of assessment to actually improve the quality of student achievement,” Schneider says. “For that, you need a full picture approach, and we have spelled out the elements of that framework.” The report is available for download at www.aacu.org. —Tim Goral
STATS WATCH
Revenue-Boosting Responses to Tough Times
AS THE FALL 2008 SEMESTER WRAPPED UP, PRIVATE COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY presidents surveyed by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities (NAICU) were asked about the impact of the economic crisis on their institutions. Not surprisingly, there are worries. But presidents are being proactive in protecting the financial health of their institutions as well as ensuring that they remain affordable options in the higher education marketplace.
Nearly all of the 371 member institutions completing the survey named fundraising declines, protection of endowment value, and maintaining student enrollment among their most pressing concerns. Nearly half of responding presidents were anticipating a 1 percent to 10 percent decline in enrollment for this semester, with 7 percent expecting a decline of 11 percent or more. Securing student loan availability and reducing the cost of institutional debt also rated highly as pressing concerns.
