Monday, November 07, 2005
What Does College Teach?
Date: Sun, 6 Nov 2005 16:07:04 -0800
From: Richard Hake <rrhake@EARTHLINK.NET>
To: AERA-GSL Graduate Studies Discussion Forum
Subscribers to AERA-GSL,
Richard Hersh, in his November 2005 Atlantic Monthly article "What Does College Teach?" [Hersh (2005)] has argued that "It's time to put an end to 'faith-based' acceptance of higher education's quality." Hersh is a former president of Hobart & William Smith Colleges and Trinity College, co-director of the "Collegiate Learning Assessment" <http://www.cae.org/content/pro_collegiate.htm>], and co-editor of "Declining by Degrees: Higher Education at Risk" [Hersh & Merrow (2005)].
Hersh (2005) wrote in part [Hake's words in CAPS]"
". . . robust measurements. . . [of differences in student learning from one campus to another]. . . . don't exist in part because colleges don't want them - because developing and testing them would be expensive; because faculty members would disagree on what to measure; and because they're wary of anything that calls into
question the long-running perception of American higher education as "world class."
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
VALUE-ADDED ASSESSMENT OFFERS AN EXCELLENT PLACE TO START, AND A CHANCE FOR HIGHER EDUCATION TO DEMONSTRATE THAT "FAITH-BASED" ANSWERS ABOUT QUALITY ARE NO LONGER ACCEPTABLE. This country has always looked to higher education to take the lead in innovation, and to define, seek, and demand excellence from its students. TODAY'S ACADEMY SHOULD BE SATISFIED WITH NOTHING LESS.
Because:
(a) university faculty and administrators may be interested in Hersh's provocative essay, and
(b) Hersh's reservations regarding *indirect* assessments of student learning and his advocacy of *direct* value-added assessment are consistent with my own generally ignored views [Hake (2005)],
I have taken the liberty of inserting hot-linked academic references and copying Hersh's article into the archives of AERA-L <http://lists.asu.edu/archives/aera-l.html> where they will be available to educators.
Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University
24245 Hatteras Street, Woodland Hills, CA 91367
<https://punts1.cc.uga.edu/cgi-bin/fetch.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.physics.indiana.edu%2F%7Ehake>
<https://punts1.cc.uga.edu/cgi-bin/fetch.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.physics.indiana.edu%2F%7Esdi>
REFERENCES [Tiny URL's are courtesy of <https://punts1.cc.uga.edu/cgi-bin/fetch.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftinyurl.com%2Fcreate.php>.]
Hake, R.R. 2005. "Re: How do you gauge how you're doing?" online at <http://listserv.nd.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0509&L=pod&O=D&P=7968>. Post of 10 Sep 2005 17:27:47-0700 to AERA-D, AERA-GSL, AERA-J, AERA-L, ASSESS, EvalTalk, PhysLrnR, POD, PsychTeacher (rejected), TIPS, & TeachingEdPsych.
Hirsh, R.H. 2005. "What Does College Teach? It's time to put an end to 'faith-based' acceptance of higher education's quality," Atlantic Monthly 296(4): 140-143, November; freely online to (a) subscribers
of the Atlantic Monthly at <http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200511/measuring-college-quality>,
and (b) (with hot-linked academic references) to educators at <http://tinyurl.com/9nqon> (scroll to the APPENDIX).
Hersh R.H. ed. & J. Merrow, ed. (forward by T. Wolfe). 2005. "Declining by Degrees: Higher Education at Risk." Palgrave Macmillan. Amazon.com information at <https://punts1.cc.uga.edu/cgi-bin/fetch.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Ftinyurl.com%2Fbvcf4>.
AERA-GSL AERA Graduate Studies Forum
-----------------------------------------------------------------
AERA Home Page on the World Wide Web: https://punts1.cc.uga.edu/cgi-bin/fetch.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aera.net
AERA-GSL Home https://punts1.cc.uga.edu/cgi-bin/fetch.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fkerlins.net%2Faera-gsl%2F
List Service Info https://punts1.cc.uga.edu/cgi-bin/fetch.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Flists.asu.edu%2Fcgi-bin%2Fwa
To cancel your subscription address an email message to
LISTSERV@ASU.EDU containing only the message UNSUB AERA-GSL
For problems with your subscription: scott@kerlins.net
-----------------------------------------------------------------
