New Leadership Alliance for Student Learning and Accountability (NLA/SLA)

Sponsors:

The New Leadership Alliance for Student Learning and Accountability (the Alliance) was recently established by the heads of major higher education associations, foundation representatives and other education leaders after nearly two years of discussion. Members of the Board of Directors of the Alliance include representatives from the American Council on Education (ACE), Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), Association of Public Land-grant Universities (A-P-L-U), Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), the Higher Learning Commission, National Center for Higher Education Management Systems (NCHEMS), and The Teagle Foundation.

The Teagle Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York

David Paris, Executive Director; Zaneeta Daver, Associate Director

The Alliance was established to improve student learning at the undergraduate level, and to find educationally valid ways of demonstrating that such improvement is taking place. It aims to improve student learning through voluntary and cooperative professional efforts to significantly improve assessment of, and accountability for, student learning outcomes. It also aims to convey to the higher education community and the larger public the importance of a quality college education in preparation for work, life, and responsible citizenship.

To achieve these aims the Alliance partners with the higher education community to establish widely shared professional norms and practices that:

• Encourage colleges and universities to set forth clear and ambitious goals for learning, gather meaningful evidence about how well students are achieving those goals, and the use that information to improve their programs.
  
• Set high standards for assessing and reporting on student learning outcomes.
  
• Organize and mobilize the higher education community to take leadership on these issues in ways that positively change institutional and individual practices and behaviors.
  
• Develop networks that share, adopt, and make sustainable improved practices in assessing and reporting on student learning outcomes, and in improving learning.
  
• Develop a clear voice and message concerning assessment, accountability, and student learning to policy leaders, employers, and the public
  
  

The Teagle Foundation convened a group of thirty leaders in June 2007 to discuss ways to develop more proactive, educationally valid approaches to improving student learning and reporting outcomes in ways that would address public concerns. An ad hoc steering committee met in October 2008 to lay out a preliminary plan of work. This meeting led to the Teagle Foundation and Carnegie Corporation of New York approval of grants to support the work of the Alliance.

Following the meetings in 2007, AAC&U and CHEA published a white paper, "New Leadership for Student Learning and Accountability: A Statement of Principles, Commitments to Action," in January 2008 that set forth the guiding philosophy of the Alliance. The Alliance was incorporated in March 2009 and is currently seeking tax-exempt status. It is planning meetings and projects that will support the creation of widely shared norms and practices for assessing and reporting on student learning.

The Alliance is focusing on three primary areas: certification, accountability templates, and network building, during a three-five year period leading the next reauthorization. Key work activities include:

1. Institutional Certification – The Alliance is working on a LEEDs-style recognition/certification of institutions initiative with regard to assessment and accountability: a "seal of approval" for following the New Leadership... principles. The initiative will create recognition for institutions that are leading the way on assessment and accountability. Developing such a certification process will help establish the norms for good practice and offer an incentive for institutions to develop assessment and accountability processes in a more systematic way.
2. Accountability Templates – In partnership with the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Outcomes, the Alliance is helping to create an expanded (second generation) template that will add to the current VSA and U-CAN models of assessment and accountability.
3. Network Building and Campaign – The Alliance is building support and movement towards changing the culture on campuses to include assessment as an everyday practice; as well as positioning higher education for the next reauthorization. The campaign involves collective action that produces demonstrable change in terms of assessment and accountability. Just as a political campaign rallies and mobilizes a constituency or organizes a community to support certain ideas and act in certain ways, so too the Alliance will at a minimum, develop leadership and strategy for the campaign, recruit workers and volunteers, communicate clear messages and gain positive visibility.
4. Moving the Needle Meeting – Invited representatives from higher education will meet in November 2009 to set forth an agenda for the community to work collaboratively and collectively on assessment and accountability issues.
5. Endorsements – The Alliance seeks endorsements from individuals and organizations who are committed to enacting the New Leadership Principles for Assessment and Accountability.
6. A national or White House Conference in 2010.
   
   

www.newleadershipalliance.org

11/19/2009