Description
In the past decade or so, the assessment movement has taken American higher education by storm. Legislative initiatives in many states have required public colleges and universities to implement programs that document institutional effectiveness and student development. Accrediting agencies have applied similar expectations to both public and private institutions. Despite its burgeoning popularity, the assessment movement has focused largely on undergraduate education, leaving institutional researchers, administrators, and faculty with scant information on methods for conducting assessments of graduate and professional education and a dearth of the results of such assessments. This volume of New Directions for Institutional Research is a step toward remedying the lack of attention given to the assessment of advanced-degree programs. It should be of value not only to professionals who are directly involved with such programs but also to inividuals who set policies that affect them. Many of the methodological issues and principles that the authors discuss will also be of value to professionals who work with assessment at the undergraduate level, as will the discussion of demand for advanced degrees. This is the 92nd issue of the quarterly journal"New Directions for Institutional Research."
