Within the first draft of the UNC-system strategic plan released earlier this month is a proposal to better evaluate student learning through more quantitative means, including standardized testing.
The Board of Governors should be wary of confusing test performance with learning.
Clearly, everyone with an interest in the UNC system wants to improve learning.
But the implementation of standardized testing — such as the proposed use of the Collegiate Learning Assessment — creates the possibility of interfering with the very teaching it’s attempting to measure and improve.
Put too much emphasis on assessment, and education begins to revolve around it.
Put too little emphasis on measurable outcomes and the risks of moral hazard and ineffective teaching can sink an institution.
Somewhere, a middle ground must be struck. Find a way to measure outcomes, but don’t create perverse incentives.
Anyone who has experienced a teacher teaching to the test can speak to the interruption in real learning it causes.
Also, the report couches much of the concern with measuring outcomes in the framework of meeting employer needs.
