How can colleges begin to use the results of assessment for continuous improvement?
Dr. Ewell: The secret is to start small, start inside the curriculum, put money behind it, and benchmark performance. As we’re developing technologies like CCSSE, and increasing the use of ACT’s WorkKeys in community colleges, for example, it is important to benchmark performance externally. If faculty can find some publicly-reported information and then compare their own results to them, they can know where they stand and what to do. I know CCSSE going to try to do that in a much more systematic way. Through benchmarking, you can find somebody or someplace that is getting very good results in a particular area and, just as in continuous quality improvement in the corporate world, you can say, “Can we come visit you and see how you do it?” Jeff Seybert at Johnson County Community College is running a benchmarking project like that. UPDATE: Given that we know that the “assessment as improvement” mentality already exists at some institutions, what must happen for it to occur on a more wi
