Dive Brief:
- While private liberal arts colleges have not historically prized systemic assessments of student growth, one analyst argues for shifting the culture to support that, as well as research about it.
- Geoff Irvine, CEO of learning assessments company Chalk & Wire, writes for eCampus News that being able to prove effectiveness could be the saving grace for expensive private liberal arts colleges competing for today’s students.
- He urges administrators to support teaching and learning research and foster an environment in which assessment is considered a tool to support learning, rather than to simply serve as a measure of it.
Dive Insight:
Liberal arts colleges have been under attack as the political environment has shifted toward graduates’ career prospects. Students who go to college to be trained for a specific field are expected to have an easier time in the job market. Liberal arts schools, of course, argue their students are prepared for any job in an era in which employees move from one place to another, changing fields along the way. To maintain that role yet still compete, proving effectiveness on the new scales may just be the way to go.