The Collegiate Learning Assessment

While America’s colleges and universities have been the envy of the world, there is a growing understanding that other nations are not only catching up with the U.S. but also competing effectively in offering higher education oriented toward producing graduates who have the skills and knowledge to succeed in a globalized economy. The Collegiate Learning Assessment is one tool that can help gauge whether today’s college and university graduates are learning what they need to in order to meet the challenges of the 21st century and to succeed personally, professionally and as active citizens. to date, over 400 institutions and 165,000 students have participated in the Collegiate Learning Assessment, which has been available to colleges and universities since 2004. The core goal of the Assessment is to provide a means for measuring an institution's contribution to students’ development of key higher-order competencies and to assess the effects on student learning of changes to curriculum and pedagogy.  To evaluate summative performance authentically, the Assessment  presents realistic problems that require students to analyze complex materials and determine the relevance to the task and credibility. In all, the project was awarded three grants by the Corporation totaling $1,150,000. The Ford Foundation, the Christian A. Johnson Endeavor Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Lumina Foundation, and the Teagle Foundation provided additional funding.