Institutions with regional accreditation now have access to a great deal of information about developing assessment plans and many fine examples of general education assessments, academic department assessment plans, and a plethora of student affairs and student support assessment plans. But many institutions are lacking in the overall institutional level assessment planning that goes beyond general education. This article will describe ways to think about what the institution says it will do and ways to incorporate the mission, vision, and values of an institution into the assessment planning process.
Beyond the Credential Factory: Why Higher Education Must Shift from Management to Flourishing
For decades, higher education leadership has obsessed over “student success” as a purely operational metric. We track retention and graduation rates and postgraduation outcomes with the same linear precision that
Yoshitaka Iwasaki
August 3, 2026
