Resolutions Related to Higher Education

B-63. Student Assessment Programs in Higher Education

The National Education Association believes that student assessment programs in higher education, properly designed and administered, can be crucial tools for diagnosing student and institutional needs, improving instruction and counseling services, and designing long-range plans. The Association also believes that such student assessment programs in higher education should—

1. Be designed institutionally rather than by the state
2. Be planned, designed, implemented, and evaluated by faculty
3. Be implemented in accordance with collective bargaining contracts where such contracts exist
4. Be sufficiently flexible to accommodate the cultural, economic, and linguistic diversity among students
5. Provide tests appropriate for students with identified learning disabilities
6. Provide faculty with information to improve individual student learning styles and aptitude.

The Association supports student assessment programs in higher education only if—

1. They are accompanied by adequate funding for remedial programs and advisement
2. Remedial programs are designed and provided to meet the deficiencies identified through assessment
3. Advisement is designed and provided to link the remediation of individual students to the completion of their degrees, certificates, or other appropriate courses of study.

The Association strongly opposes—

1. The use of student assessment programs to deny access to, or exclude students from, educational opportunities
2. The use of any single test to deny access to regular credit classes
3. The use of student assessment programs for the purpose of evaluating faculty, academic programs, or institutions. (1995, 2001)

NOTE: Figures in parentheses represent the years when the resolution was first adopted and last amended or reviewed.