In the fierce competition for entry into top colleges, parents and students commonly rely on college rankings that, critics contend, have little to do with learning. A group of educators have come up with something that's winning high marks in academia—a test to measure how much the college experience boosts the brainpower of students.
Modeled on the law boards, the test measures the critical thinking, problem solving and writing skills that undergraduates gain in college. Following a three-year feasibility study at 14 colleges and universities, the test of learning outcomes—called the Value-Added Assessment Initiative (VAAI)—is now in trial runs at 65 additional schools.
In the fall of 2004, the RAND Corporation's Council to Aid Education began implementing the test to track freshmen through graduation at 25 universities. "Assessment of student learning is the best kind of evidence to give feedback to individual students and the best kind of data an institution can use to make educational improvement," contends Richard H. Hersh, ex-president of Trinity College and prime mover of the VAAI at RAND, where he's a senior fellow.
