External and Internal Influences on Institutional Approaches to Student Assessment: Accountability or Improvement?

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to compare the influences of state characteristics related to student assessment, accreditation emphasis on student assessment, and institutional dynamics supporting student assessment on the approaches to student assessment that institutions have initiated. We conducted this study by examining the relevant literature, creating a national survey instrument, surveying undergraduate institutions throughout the United States, and analyzing the responses of the 885 public institutions who participated in our survey. Separate regressions were run for three different groups of institutional types on three approaches to assessment: cognitive, affective, and post-college. Regressions for the three institutional types explained 21 to 27% of the variance for cognitive assessment, 7 to 21% for affective assessment and 6 to 19% for post-college assessment. With the exception of a minor influence of state characteristics for doctoral and research universities, institutional dynamics and accreditation region were found to be the primary influences on student assessment approaches for all institutional types. We found that the drive for state-level accountability has not exceeded the influence of institutional accreditation and that internal dynamics appear to be the driving force of all three approaches to student assessment.