Conflicting Stakeholders in Higher Education Assessment

Assessment requirements in universities have become nearly universal. Evaluation efforts typically focus on documenting student and program learning outcomes. Despite being framed as tools for enhancing educational quality, decades of assessment efforts suggest that this goal is not being met. This critique is contextualized within broader social-historical shifts in higher education, pointing out how assessment practices have paralleled trends toward corporatization and heightened administrative oversight. Many assessment professionals adopted methodologies from behavioural science and educational measurement, while neglecting essential measurement principles, resulting in data quality issues. Existing assessment measures often exhibit questionable reliability and validity, undermining their effectiveness. This book suggests that the prevalent summative approach to course objectives may not be the best method for improving instruction or assessing student learning. Alternatives such as research derived from the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and qualitative, formative assessments may yield more meaningful, quality-driven information.