Assessment in Academia. The good, the bad and the ugly

Resumen

The use of assessment tools in academia is increasing at a torrid pace. The most important factor in this stunning increase in assessment is the desire for accountability during difficult economic times. In particular: administrators need to prove to a skeptical public that tax dollars are being spent wisely; individual department faculty need to justify their own budgets; employers want to know that the graduates they hire have the content, thinking and people skills that are required by corporations; and federal, state and private granting organizations want to know that their grant money is being put to good use. This paper will discuss the audiences for assessment and the types of tools that are now a normal part of our faculty responsibilities in the United States. The special focuses will be on considering how we distinguish good teaching from bad teaching, what U.S. universities are doing, and can do, to deal with bad teachers, and how I deal with these issues in my own classroom.