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Quality in the Undergraduate Experience What Is It? How Is It Measured? Who Decides? Summary of a Workshop (2016) / Chapter Skim
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4 Measuring and Communicating Quality
Pages 29-32

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From page 29...
... noted that there are powerful cultural beliefs in the United States that the institution matters most, but that there is persuasive evidence that the quality of the educational experience and student learning varies more between particular programs or departments within institutions than between institutions. He asked the audience, "Do you think that you experienced quality uniformly at the institution throughout your experience?
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From page 30...
... These network effects -- interactions outside the classroom among students with widely different interests -- may add quality to the educational experience. Grossman suggested that the benefit is not only personal, but also public: "How much does the public benefit from political science students and future lawyers and future cooperation executives interacting on a daily basis with artists, musicians, and future clergymen?
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From page 31...
... noted, "Even as we want to contextualize, we also have to balance that with a need to provide students with the information that they can compare. Both of those impulses are valid." Engle described how the Gates Foundation has undertaken a number of initiatives to improve data quality, for example, collecting data through completion initiatives such as Complete College America 1 and Achieving the Dream.
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From page 32...
... Engle advocated for careful thought about the optimal data infrastructure, including communication between the various data systems, noting that "we need to decrease burden and increase utility." She urged that state systems should communicate better with federal systems, federal systems should communicate better with one another, and private systems -- such as a national student clearinghouse -- should play a role as well. Engle described the Gates Foundation's data infrastructure working group that is writing papers (released in early 2016 through the Institute for Higher Education Policy)
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Key Terms

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  • engle described
  • nontraditional students
  • gates foundation
  • melinda gates

  • data quality
  • improve data
  • data infrastructure
  • engle noted
  • measuring quality

  • grossman suggested
  • appropriate level
  • program level
  • determine quality
  • student outcomes

  • student connections
  • educational quality
  • individual participants
  • participants debated
  • educational experience

  • connected quality
  • quality discussion
  • measure student
  • collecting data
  • participants connected

  • engle advocated
  • improve student
  • understand quality
  • coordinate data
  • student engagement


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