Book Description

This report summarizes proceedings and conclusions of a two-day national planning workshop to further the assessment of national postsecondary outcomes, as suggested by Goal 6.5 of the National Education Goals, and to determine how the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the states might work more effectively to develop mutually-supportive postsecondary assessment activities and policies. Conclusions of the workshop indicate that there is no immediate possibility of aggregating state-level data on postsecondary outcomes to create a usable national indicator. But they do suggest other ways in which the states and the federal government might work together to improve the quality of the data. Section 1 provides background information and an overview of the workshop. Section 2 presents results of an inventory of state activities. Section 3 describes the workshop's major discussion themes and conclusions concerning: (1) the current political context for postsecondary assessment; (2) the corresponding methodological context; and (3) results of working sessions. Section 4 provides conclusions, policy implications, and possible next steps. Appendices include, in addition to the workshop agenda and participants list, a paper describing current activities of the NCES and individual background papers on each state's activities in postsecondary assessment. Also appended are the texts of the following prepared papers: "What Political Leaders Expect from Postsecondary Assessment" (Charles S. Lenth); "Perspective from the National Education Goals Panel" (Ken Nelson); "The State Perspective" (Mark D. Musick); "The Virginia Experience" (Margaret A. Miller); "Making Assessment Essential without Legislative Mandates: The Missouri Experience" (Ava L. Fajen et al.); and "Methodological Concerns: An ETS Perspective" (John Mazzeo). (MAH)