In the wake of the Spellings Commission, critical choices need to be made about how to refashion institutional assessment practices to respond to new accountability demands, without destroying the essence of accountability as a process of continuous improvement. This article begins with a brief description of the history of assessment, with…

This chapter discusses the evolution of alumni studies in the United States and how alumni data can be used to inform public policy.

Successful outcomes assessment programs have many common characteristics. Institutional researchers should examine these signs of success and use them as guides for developing their own campus programs. (Author/MSE)

Some of the most commonly available and widely used tests and questionnaires relevant to campus assessment programs in subject areas, attitudes and satisfaction of students and former students, and other outcomes areas are listed. (MSE)

Successful implementation of assessment requires effective administrative leadership to get started, convert data to information, and use the information in making improvements. Assessment may pay its greatest long-term dividends as an organizational device for directing scarce reserves of institutional attention to teaching and learning. (MLW)

The development of institutional performance indicators in higher education is viewed as part of a broader approach to management information and decision making. The experience of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems in developing useful information from raw data, selecting appropriate performance indicators, and applying…

Total Quality Management (TQM) and assessment in higher education both focus on processes to improve educational quality, and both require upper-level leadership's commitment. Guided by the proven principles of TQM, assessment can help institutions develop a mechanism for responding in advance to the challenges ahead. (MSE)

Information use can be defined in many ways depending on a variety of organizational, personal, and presentational factors. The experience of evaluation researchers provides some guides for practice. (Author/MSE)

Before communicating any information, institutional researchers should answer four diagnostic questions: Who's asking? What for? What's the proper medium? What happens next? (MSE)

Approaches to college student monitoring have been shaped by changing contexts and evolving technical capabilities, beginning with retention studies and developing into fully relational databases for cohort tracking. Institutional researchers should know this history and be aware of the specific demands for information that future tracking systems…