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As is no doubt the case at many institutions, a typical University of Washington (UW) graduation ceremony illustrates why assessment of undergraduate learning is challenging. The faculty and administrators are the first to enter the stadium, similar in their solemn dress and demeanor. Next, the doctoral and master’s graduates march in sedately, wearing nearly identical regalia, looking shell-shocked and grateful. Then, as the band plays Aaron Copeland’s Fanfare for the Common Man, the undergraduates pour onto the field, filling up the empty seats willy-nilly. Many have embellished their caps and gowns, taping colorful symbols or sculptures to the tops of their mortar boards or messages such as “Thanks, Mom” and “Hire ME” to their backs. Crossing the stage to get their diplomas, some walk with decorum; some dance; some run; and some bow, encouraging the crowd to give them a round of applause.
Watching such a colorful spectacle, one wonders how we could ever capture the undergraduate experience of that group. How can we account for the classes, people, and other influences that contributed to their learning and brought them to this door they dance, bow, and dash through?
Attempting to capture that diverse experience at our institution, we designed and conducted the University of Washington’s Study of Undergraduate Learning (UW SOUL), a longitudinal study that tracked 304 students (about five percent of the entering freshman and transfer class) as long as we could through their undergraduate experience from 1999 to 2003. We found that longitudinal studies that use mixed methods, as ours did, achieve what assessment ought to: give institutions detailed information about the undergraduate learning experience that they can use to improve subsequent learning. (Inside the Undergraduate Experience: The University of Washington’s Study of Undergraduate Learning, Anker Press, 2007, provides a complete description of the study, its findings, and information about how to access the study instruments.)
Studying Undergraduate Learning
The debate about what assessment of learning in American higher education can and should be has continued at varying volumes for two decades. Mostly recently, the Spellings Commission’s report on higher education recommended national standardized testing to assess what students have learned in college (Change, January/February 2007).
The state of Washington backed away from the standardized-testing approach 17 years ago. In 1989, an inter-institutional group from Washington’s two- and four-year colleges and universities conducted a study of three national standardized tests, concluding that those tests neither validly measured what students were learning in college nor yielded information that faculty could use to improve learning or instruction.
Catharine Hoffman Beyer and Gerald M. Gillmore worked in the University of Washington’s Office of Educational Assessment from 1999 to 2003, conducting the UW Study of Undergraduate Learning with their colleague Andrew Fisher. Beyer has taught in the university’s interdisciplinary writing program for 20 years. Gillmore directed the Office of Educational Assessment from 1980 to 2001.
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