Here, pioneer Trudy Banta illuminates the many facets of assessmentin colleges and universities during the past two decades.Addressing the principles of good assessment practice, she gives aninsider?s perspective and shares the larger questions and answersencountered in assessment. In the final section, she looks atassessment outside the United States. This valuable publicationwill give you a broader, deeper appreciation of the successes,snares, and future of outcomes assessment.

Introduction--Selections from Trudy Banta's "Editor's Notes" 1Some Things Never Change.On the Crest of the Wave 10Weaving Assessment into the Fabric of Higher Education 13Revealing the Results of Assessment 14This One's for Students 17The Power of a Matrix 21Welcome News About the Impact of Assessment 25You Won't Find This in Books.Are We Making A Difference? 31Toward a Scholarship of Assessment 34How Do We Know Whether We Are Making a Difference? 37Demonstrating the Impact of Changes Based on Assessment Findings42One Bird's-Eye View of the U.S. Landscape forAssessment.Take Part in the National Goals Debate 47Do Faculty Sense the Tightening of the Accountability Noose?50Can We Combine Peer Review and National Assessment? 52Trying to Clothe the Emperor 56Are There Measures for Improvement and Accountability? 64Tripping Lightly Around the Globe.Assessment: A Global Phenomenon 68Evaluation of Teaching and Learning in Germany 70A Global Perspective--At Last 74The Most Compelling International Dialogue to Date 78Two Conferences, Two Systems--Similar Perspectives? 82Sour Notes from Europe 86