Update from public institutionsBy Marc Schaeffer
Within the public sector, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges (NASULGC) have jointly developed the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA). This system will help institutions meet the following objectives:
An excellent slide presentation given at the NASULGC meeting provided an overview of the VSA: Private institutions have adopted a similar format which they call UCAN. The VSA proposes that each institution place on its home page a link to a College Portrait—a Web template designed to capture and present information—organized into three sections:
See an “Overview of College Portrait.” The first section of the College Portrait, Consumer Information, would address the question: “What information would be most helpful to prospective students and their families in deciding which college or university best fits their educational wants and needs?” Costs of attendance, degree offerings, living arrangements, student characteristics, graduation rates, transfer rates and post-graduate plans are included. The second section of the College Portrait, Student Experiences and Perceptions, provides a snapshot of student experiences and activities and student perceptions of the institution by reporting the results from one of four student engagement surveys. A popular and familiar instrument that might be used to report results in this section is the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), which provides feedback from freshmen and seniors in the areas of group learning, active learning, experience with diverse groups of people and ideas, student satisfaction, institutional commitment to learning and success and student interaction with faculty and staff. The third section of the College Portrait, Student Learning Outcomes, reports on how institutions measure student learning in the area of “institution-specific outcomes data such as program assessments and professional licensure exams,” as well as “… student learning gains in critical thinking (including analytic reasoning) and written communication.” Institutions would be required to select one of three standardized tests to measure these latter outcomes: Collegiate Assessment of Academic Proficiency (CAAP), Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) or Measure of Academic Proficiency and Progress (MAPP). Get more information about these tests. Board professional staff would be well-served to become familiar with the VSA and assure that presidents, provosts, chief student affairs officers, chief financial officers, and institutional research officers are doing what is necessary to prepare their institutions and brief their boards on this initiative. Note that some reportable data elements associated with the consumer data are due three months from the date an institution becomes a VSA participant. Although the project is termed “voluntary,” there is some feeling among sponsoring associations that institutions that do not “volunteer” to participate may ultimately be compelled to do so by legislation or regulation.
Marc Schaeffer is chief of staff to the president and Board of Trustees at William Paterson University (N.J.) and a member of the Marketing and Membership Committee, AGB Board Professionals Leadership Group
AGB | 1133 20th St. N.W., Suite 300 | Washington, DC 20036 | 202.296.8400; 800.356.6317 |
Board professional staff should become familiar with the Voluntary System of Accountability and ensure that the leaders of their institutions are doing what is necessary to prepare.
|
