Goal is a major and general subdivision of the institutional mission statement that defines fixed areas of production and their attainment that should be addressed by specific objectives. Indirect Measures of Student Learning are assessment instruments and techniques that supplement direct measures of academic achievement. Mission is the internally defined statement that documents the vision of the institution. It defines in general and philosophic conditions all of the production areas of the institution and is subdivided into operational goals and specific objectives. Norm-referenced tests yield information regarding student performance in comparison to a norm or average of performance by similar students.
Norms are statistics that describe the test performance of a well-defined population.
Objectives are the written, active, and operational subdivisions of a goal that are well defined and measurable in their accomplishment. An objective is comprised of similar outcomes. Outcomes are the subdivisions of specific objectives that are the products of an institution. Process is the measure of productivity as inputs are converted to outputs in the educational system. Institutional effectiveness assessment focuses not on the process but on the product.