3 Assessment works best when the programs it seeks to improve have clear, explicitly stated purposes. Assessment is a goal-oriented process. It entails comparing educational performance with educational purposes and expectations - these derived from the institution's mission, from faculty intentions in program and course design, and from knowledge of the students' own goals. Clear, shared implementable goals are the cornerstone for assessment that is focused and useful. 8 Assessment is most likely to lead to improvement when it is part of a larger set of conditions that promote change.
Assessment alone changes little.
Its greatest contribution comes on campuses where the quality of teaching and learning is visibly valued and worked at. On such campuses, information about learning outcomes is seen as an integral part of decision making, and avidly sought. 4 Assessment requires attention to outcomes but also and equally to the experiences that lead to these outcomes. But to improve outcomes we need to know about student experience along the way - about the curricula, teaching, and kind of student effort that lead to particular outcomes. Through assessment, education meet responsibilities to students and to the public.