Y. to evaluate all programs

PROVO — Brigham Young University will join a national movement to evaluate how well colleges and universities educate their students, administrators told professors this week during the school's annual University Conference.

The new emphasis is intended to change the way some BYU professors approach the classroom and to create stronger ways to measure how much value the university adds to students during their time on campus.

President Cecil Samuelson used his annual address to faculty and staff to reveal that the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities reaffirmed BYU's accreditation last month, but Samuelson also announced the formation of a university advisory committee to react to a key recommendation made by the NWCCU.

Academic Vice President John Tanner said during a faculty meeting that the NWCCU will return to campus in fall 2007 to hear an interim report on what Tanner called the NWCCU's "request, if not a mandate," that BYU identify and publish "learning outcomes" for each of BYU's degree programs.

Learning outcomes are statements that specify what students will know or be able to do when they finish a degree.

The committee will work with each department on campus to publish expected learning outcomes and create ways to measure whether students reach the learning objectives. Samuelson also charged the committee with using the learning assessments to improve faculty teaching.

Samuelson and Tanner said the university community should take the NWCCU's recommendation and the BYU committee's work seriously.

"Failure to comply by one program could jeopardize the accreditation of all programs," Tanner said.

The learning-outcomes movement is already evident in Utah. High school seniors who graduated last spring had to pass an exit exam to earn a diploma.

Some BYU professors considered learning outcomes a fad, but a number of factors make Tanner liken the movement to tectonic plates shifting under the landscape of higher education. The increasing costs of a college education is driving the movement as parents and students question whether the benefits equal the high price, especially at elite universities that charge tens of thousands of dollars a year for tuition.