The Societal Context for Assessment in the Department
Since the mid-1980s, an enormous amount of energy has been devoted to assessment in colleges and universities. Much of this assessment has focused on the outcomes of student learning and has been motivated by the needs of stakeholders external to colleges and universities. State departments of higher education and regional and disciplinary accrediting agencies have asked institutions to provide credible evidence of their graduates' level of development. These external demands for evidence of results will almost certainly continue to grow in the years ahead.
Effective leadership inside the institution also requires high-quality information about the functioning of the academic department. In other words, administrators and faculty members should be using effective professional methods at ever)' point to understand their organizations and to produce the highest quality results for their various clients, regardless of any formal mandates from external bodies to do so.