As the university community knows, Chancellor Wells announced that all of the governance groups signed off on the VSA program. We are now going to move forward with posting more data about our university on the web.
The one caveat remained: everyone expressed concern over evaluation methods--so we will be seeing what standardized tests will be chosen to "demonstrate" that students have learned something in college. I am still struck by the irony that many colleges are moving away from using SAT/ACT to determine whether high school students are prepared for college, but we are now going to test them with a similar product to determine if they gained skills in college.
My fear remains that the final standardized test number will become an operative goal of the university and we will all be required to tailor our courses to improve student performance on a problematic standardized test. . . .Not now, but be prepared!
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Well there may be pressure to "teach to the test" but my guess is that most faculty will continue to teach however they see fit according to their professional judgement.
The problem then would be that the university has chosen to rate itself according to a standard that may or may not reflect what is being taught in the classroom.
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