In today's Inside Higher Education News is a great summary article on proposed accountability plans for University of California. The new system President Mark Yudof presented a draft of his suggestions to the Board of Regents over this past (September 20, 2008) weekend.
Good news, is the proposal was a framework to pull together all the things the member campuses already measure but are scattered and difficult to find. Bad news is the Regents are still fighting measuring student learning outcomes. I appreciate their reluctance but . . .
My issue is whether or not measuring things like faculty performance, finances and research output are really indicators of STUDENT learning!
My main concern is that the UC system still does not participate in the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA) which is designed to provide transparency on things like educational outcome. The UC system does not participate in the VSA because of their suggestion to use one of three national tests measuring student learning. The UC faculty states that such testing “usurps the role of campus and departmental faculty in assessing student learning”.
I appreciate that no one likes being measured based on the success of another person. Plus I know that learning is made up of many pieces that a college cannot control including preparation from high school and individual student motivation. BUT I think there needs to be an independent measurement that is NOT controlled by the people who are being measured!
I am the daughter of a college dean so I understand the need for research and scholarship by colleges. The problem for UC faculty is the "product" families are paying for is learning outcome. Measuring how much the UC schools spend or how many grants and publications the faculty has in research is probably not something important to parents and students.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
