Gary L. Kramer of the McKay School of Education at Brigham Young University recently co-edited a new book, “Higher Education Assessments: Leadership Matters,” with colleagues Danny Olsen, Russell T. Osguthorpe, Coral Hanson, Travis D. Johnson and Bryan D. Bradley as contributing authors.
Written for higher institution provosts, deans and presidents, the book addresses the challenges of changing economic and political landscapes which can undermine senior campus leaders’ efforts to set the tone for and facilitate institutional assessments.
“The chapters in this volume are designed to remind us that the management of assessment is much like the management of anything else,” said Peter T. Ewell, vice president of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems, in the book’s forward. “What is needed is an explicit plan, consistent with the institution’s mission and values, that documents in sufficient detail what needs to be done and who is to do it.”
The 288-page book, co-published with the American Council on Education and released by Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, aims to empower educators with a novel methodology that measures and evaluates teachers’ efforts based upon the student, not the teacher.
The BYU professors who contributed to the book are current or former faculty members of the David O. McKay School of Education. Kramer is associate director of assessment and evaluation at the McKay School; Olsen is director of institutional assessment and analysis at BYU; Osguthorpe is director of the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL); Hanson is assessment and analysis specialist for the dean’s office; Johnson is the CTL associate director; and Bradley is the CTL faculty development specialist.
For more information about “Higher Education Assessments,” contact Gary L. Kramer at gary_kramer@byu.edu or (801) 422-6576. For more about the David O. McKay School of Education, visit http://education.byu.edu/.
Writer: Philip Volmar
