Higher education is a linchpin of the American economy and society: teaching and research at colleges and universities contribute significantly to the nation's economic activity, both directly and through their impact on future growth; federal and state governments support teaching and research with billions of taxpayers' dollars; and individuals, communities, and the nation gain from the learning and innovation that occur in higher education. In the current environment of increasing tuition and shrinking public funds, a sense of urgency has emerged to better track the performance of colleges and universities in the hope that their costs can be contained without compromising quality or accessibility. Improving Measurement of Productivity in Higher Education presents an analytically well-defined concept of productivity in higher education and recommends empirically valid and operationally practical guidelines for measuring it. In addition to its obvious policy and research value, improved measures of productivity may generate insights that potentially lead to enhanced departmental, institutional, or system educational processes. Improving Measurement of Productivity in Higher Education constructs valid productivity measures to supplement the body of information used to guide resource allocation decisions at the system, state, and national levels and to assist policymakers who must assess investments in higher education against other compelling demands on scarce resources. By portraying the productive process in detail, this report will allow stakeholders to better understand the complexities of-and potential approaches to-measuring institution, system and national-level performance in higher education.

In this valuable resource, well-known scholars present a detailed understanding of contemporary theories and practices in the fields of measurement, assessment, and evaluation, with guidance on how to apply these ideas for the benefit of students and institutions. Bringing together terminology, analytical perspectives, and methodological advances, this second edition facilitates informed decision-making while connecting the latest thinking in these methodological areas with actual practice in higher education. This research handbook provides higher education administrators, student affairs personnel, institutional researchers, and faculty with an integrated volume of theory, method, and application.

Both educators and their students are involved in the process of assessment – all parties are expected to meet and exceed expectations in the face of competing conditions. New practices are being developed to enhance students’ participation, especially in their own assessment, be it though peer-review, reflective assessment, the introduction of new technologies, or other novel solutions. Though widely researched, few have measured these innovations’ effectiveness in terms of satisfaction, perceived learning, or performance improvements. Innovative Practices for Higher Education Assessment and Measurement bridges the gap between political discourse, theoretical approach, and teaching practices in terms of assessment in higher education. Bringing new insights and presenting novel strategies, this publication brings forth a new perception of the importance of assessment and offers a set of successful, innovative practices. This book is ideal for educators, administrators, policy makers, and students of education.

Teachers assist students in order to gain data and to determine whether the instructional objectives have been met. Usually, the assessment process takes place as part of ongoing learning and teaching, periodically and at key transitions. The term "assessment" refers to the wide variety of methods, procedures, and tools used to determine what students know, learn, and how they apply knowledge in concrete situations. Assessment, Testing, and Measurement Strategies in Global Higher Education is a comprehensive synthesis of correlations between assessment, testing, and measurement in the context of global education. It analyzes the impact of educational technology on learning analytics, challenges of rapidly changing learning environments, and computer-based assessment. Featuring an assortment of topics such as educational technologies, risk management, and metacognition, this book is optimal for academicians, higher education faculty, deans, performance evaluators, practitioners, curriculum designers, researchers, administrators, and students.

This book investigates university internationalization in different national contexts and compares internationalization performance across national boundaries. Internationalization has been recognised by policymakers as the key to perform successfully within the new global context: the author identifies primary motivations for universities to embrace this agenda, and deconstructs the phenomenon into measurable dimensions and components. Using extensive qualitative data from university leaders and practitioners, this book analyses the global forces that shape the international education landscape, and reviews the existing instruments for measuring internationalization. In doing so, the author proposes an integrated understanding of university internationalization and indicates benchmarks that can help to quantify and measure this phenomenon. This book will be of interest and value to students and scholars of university internationalization.

Preparing Students for College and Careers addresses measurement and research issues related to college and career readiness. Educational reform efforts across the United States have increasingly taken aim at measuring and improving postsecondary readiness. These initiatives include developing new content standards, redesigning assessments and performance levels, legislating new developmental education policy for colleges and universities, and highlighting gaps between graduates’ skills and employers’ needs. In this comprehensive book, scholarship from leading experts on each of these topics is collected for assessment professionals and for education researchers interested in this new area of focus. Cross-disciplinary chapters cover the current state of research, best practices, leading interventions, and a variety of measurement concepts, including construct definitions, assessments, performance levels, score interpretations, and test uses.