Provost Academy Books

This book challenges institutions and their programs to prioritize the use of chronological assessment results to benefit enrolled students in comparison with the more common practice of prolonged assessment cycles that generally benefit future students. Peggy Maki advocates for real-time assessment processes to identify patterns of under-performance and obstacles that require timely interventions for enrolled students to succeed. In tandem with the sets of educational practices and policies that many institutions have now undertaken to close achievement and graduation rates across our diverse student demographics, such as developing clear degree pathways, she calls on all higher education providers - if they are to remain relevant and meet their social purpose in our complex world - to urgently re-calibrate their assessment processes to focus on currently enrolled students' progress towards achieving a high-quality degree, regardless of when they matriculate or re-enter higher education.

This new edition retains the appeal, clarity and practicality that made the first so successful, and continues to provide a fundamental introduction to the principles and purposes of rubrics, with guidance on how to construct them, use them to align course content to learning outcomes, and apply them in a wide variety of courses, and to all forms of assignment.

Demands for quality at all levels of education are higher than they have ever been. Making clear what students must learn is being stressed by Federal and State governments and by professional and national accreditation organizations. This book is designed to help faculty and institutions of higher education meet these demands by obtaining, managing, using, and reporting valid outcome attainment measures at the course level; and mapping outcome attainment from the course level to departmental, degree program, and institutional levels, and beyond.

At a moment when over half of US colleges are employing ePortfolios, the time is ripe to develop their full potential to advance integrative learning and broad institutional change. The authors outline how to deploy the ePortfolio as a high-impact practice and describe widely-applicable models of effective ePortfolio pedagogy and implementation that demonstrably improve student learning across multiple settings.

This book reflects the work of a select group of researchers, scholars, and practitioners in higher education assessment with the goal of identifying strategies that assist senior campus leaders as they respond to the challenges of a changing economic landscape and political climate. The contributors, experts in the field, bring to the forefront key issues relevant to advancing assessments in higher education-principles that culminate in improving student learning and development.

The second edition of Assessment for Excellence arrives as higher education enters a new era of the accountability movement. In the face of mandates such as results-based funding and outcomes-based accreditation, institutions and assessment specialists are feeling increasingly pressured to demonstrate accountability to external constituencies. The practice of assessment under these new accountability pressures takes on special significance for the education of students and the development of talent across the entire higher education system. This book introduces a talent development approach to educational assessment as a counter to prevailing philosophies, illustrating how contemporary practices are unable to provide institutions with meaningful data with which to improve educational outcomes.

Jeffrey L. Buller's newest book is designed to help department chairs, deans, and members of evaluation committees by showing them what they need to know and do when participating in faculty reviews and evaluations. The book shows how to apply the information about performance and convey clear messages about priorities. It also reveals what professionals can do to protect themselves in cases when an appeal or grievance is likely.

The new (eighth) edition of the Excellence in Higher Education Guide: A Framework for the Design, Assessment and Continuous Improvement of Institutions, Departments and Programs updates and extends the classic EHE series. This edition includes a broad and integrated approach to design, assessment, planning, and improvement of colleges and universities of all types, as well as individual academic, student affairs, administrative and services units. The framework included in the Guide is adaptable to institutions and units with any mission, and is consistent with the current directions within regional and programmatic accreditation.

In a sweeping and ambitious book, Paul Gaston deploys his knowledge and experience as a peer reviewer for three regional accrediting agencies, a former board member and chair of the Association of Specialized and Professional Accreditors, and his involvement in the early stages of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation, to go beyond the polemics to explore whether a strategy that builds on the emerging values and good practices can achieve the substantive and positive improvements the public is demanding.