Publications and Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2024
Abstract
In this essay, we explore program reviews as important sites for the tension Peter Ewell defines at the core of outcomes assessment practices: that is, between assessing for accountability and assessing for improvement. We address this tension through the example of our Industrial Design program on our urban campus in New York City. In exploring Ewell’s tension between accountability and improvement, we develop the concept of the resource paradox. Simply stated, program reviews require institutions to invest time and resources to close the loop on implementing improvements – yet those actions often require resources many institutions lack. Using our case study and reviewing the scholarship on program reviews, we address the resource paradox by describing how we’ve tried to address it, and how other institutions might also do so.
Comments
This article was originally published in Intersection: A Journal at the Intersection of Assessment and Learning, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 3-24, available at https://doi.org/10.61669/001c.89139
This work is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).