COMMITTING TO QUALITY: Perspective on GUIDELINES FOR

ASSESSMENT AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION for

developing countries.

Committing to quality means setting clear goals

for students’ achievements, measuring performance regularly

against those goals, reporting evidence of success and working

towards sustaining a positive result. These are the basic

principles of assessment and

accountability in education.

Committing to quality means setting clear goals for students’

achievements, measuring performance regularly against those

goals, reporting evidence of success and working towards

sustaining a positive result. These are the basic principles of

assessment and

accountability in education.

The best way to bring about these uniform goals is to share and

discuss these principles and enforce compulsion of practice by

constant monitoring. Outcomes in education should be a general

agreement which is the development of appropriate knowledge-

based skills and application of knowledge and skills in solving

societal problems. The acquisition of intellectual and social

habits for productive, responsible citizenship who will ask :

what can I do for my nation? and not: what can the nation do for

me? Learning outcomes are not supposed to vary no matter the type

of institution because all institutions have similar mission and

goals which cumulates to developing personal and social

responsibility by integrating and applying learning outcomes in

order to improve our environments and increase societal quality

of life.

All institutions of higher learning are encouraged to articulate

its specific goal for student learning and prominently announce

these goals to the various stakeholders and the public.

Harmonization of all institutional goals ensures commitment to

quality. It will be easier to assess each institution and

evaluate accountability in higher education if goals, visions and

missions are harmonized. Announcing goals not results should be

paramount.

Is Your Institution Setting Ambitious Goals?

Higher institutions should set ambitious goals that are

challenging and tailored to societal needs especially with a view

to achieving Millennium Development Goals by 2015.One major role

of the National Council on Higher Education (NCHE) is to

formulate policies and make policy guidelines which are monitored

through a good quality assurance committee. To maintain a uniform

standard, the institutions programs are checked against these

guidelines which should include but not limited to:

Institutions statement of learning outcomes should clearly

articulate what students should be able to do, achieve,

demonstrate or know upon completion of each course of study.

Goals should be stated in such a way that allows levels of

achievement to be assessed against an externally informed or

benchmarked level of achievement. That means similar

institutions are assessed and compared using some standard

criteria

Program review should be in such a way that ensures that

curricular and co-curricular goals are aligned with current

societal needs and intended outcomes

Learning outcomes are measurable, internally and externally,

and are presented in such a way that interested audience

( public) should understand clearly what is expected of the

institutions

An internal and external program review and evaluation is

set in motion and is sustainable by the individuals

responsible

With these guidelines and more that may apply, the institutions

are made out-come based, geared towards economic development and

achievement of Millennium Development Goals. Such guidelines are

made available to all institutions and its content clearly

written, eliminating ambiguity. The critical reason for such is

not competition or ranking but improvement. The colleges and

universities can use the guidelines to determine how effective

they are. Most of the higher institutions in East Africa have

not established Institutional Research (IR) departments as a part

of quality assurance, where evidence of students learning are

gathered and used to improve institutional performance. If

results of students are assessed against externally informed

benchmarking level of achievement or compared with other similar

institutions, a uniform standard could be achieved. The need for

such benchmark level is not ranking but advisory in order to

maintain standards and achieve ambitiously set goals. The purpose

of gathering evidence of students learning and level of

engagement of academic activity is to ensure quality and improve

standards, using evidence based data which provides the

information require for effective planning and proper

refocusing where adjustments are to be made. Data analysis,

interpretation and their use should be a prominent and

consequental factor in institutions strategic planning and

program review processes

Discussion about evidence leads to recommendations for

institutional improvement and taking action when appropriate and

feasible . The idea of end product evaluation should be

discouraged because evaluation is supposed to be continuous and

sustainable, targeted towards goals attainments and improvement

and not vindictive . This means that all institutions should be

subjected to scrutiny in the process and students learning

experiences cross checked against similar goals to ensure desired

outcomes have been targeted. The need for continuous assessment

of programmes cannot be over emphasised as evidence will include

subjecting results against external informed levels and

benchmarks already set by the national council on Higher

education

How Do We Report Evidence and Results

Reporting evidence of students learning to both internal and

external constituents strengthens institution’s commitment in

improving programs and contribute to high level of institutional

efficiency and effectiveness,but caution must be taken in data

interpretation in order to avoid misleading information and/or

increase misconceptions externally. As discussed earlier an when

assessment is done with right motives in place, its results can

be shared by internal constituents ( Faculty members) staff ,

administrators and students) or externally ( by the responsible

body) not entire population in a state as interpretation of

evidence and analysis of results makes no sense to those who

cannot understand institutional goals. The results when shared

will ensure transparency and accountability to the public by

developing a highly visible and easily accessible websites or

data sites.

Transparency and accountability in reporting does not mean giving

reports to individuals who has no metacognitive ability to deduce

that it is for evident maintance of uniform standard and already

set benchmarks . It is also better to take significant steps

towards greater transparency in reporting institutional progress

to both public and private entities by providing a uniform

template that only show important information about institutional

demography and persistence as well as information about learning

experiences and learning outcomes. Such template should use

uniform definitions and reporting conventions. Institutions

should evaluate such templates and use them to support internal

discussion and program reviews and improvement.

Externally, such template should be goal targeted and filing the

gaps on societal needs. Any evident report that is not

accountable to the public towards educational goal attainment is

not transparent and credible.Most often, such reports could be

misguiding , misleading and anti improvement.

My focus here is what should be the motive of assessment and

accountability ? In order to create impact and maintain

continuous improvement of standard assessment and accountability

cannot be done as a haphazard way for higher education

There are some ingredients which Jonathan (2012) while reviewing

the similar guidelines in American has recommended

- Identify – identify each stakeholders goals

- Use agreed on measurements of performance

- Analyze results of measurements

- Identify what must be producing desired or undesired results

- Make adjustments eg recruit different students, hire faculty

with different skills, increase resources

- Review the process after some time

- Leaving assessment for a long time create gaps in higher

education which is at the detriment and for future of

outcomes

Assessment is corrective for improvement of existing standards

and assessment illiteracy is a professional suicide .

professionals are required to demonstrate that they perform

satisfactorily and this is accountability . Volitionally

hardly do members of any group , organizations or institutions

install accountability process, rather accountability process

is imposed by virtue of role of the authority in charge .

Usually it is imposed from outside a system probably because

the public or stakeholders have doubts about the quality of

service of an organization or institution but this is wrong.

When this scenario occur , public skepticism sets in and it

might take long to shelf. Professionals in education should

recognize that coping with accountability requirements imposed

in a way that benefits the system is always welcome. But mud-

slinging instead of team work has evolved the values of

accountability because the goal of institutions has been

eroded for lack of continuity or misplaced priority

Doubtless to say that where the are no performance

guidelines , no stated goals and no properly aligned

strategy , combined with unfamiliarity with testing as regards

complex competitive arena, the process is blurred. Becoming

assessment and accountability literate lies on the fact that

there is a performance standard already indicated . this then

means that haphazard assessment and accountability may not

necessarily bring out emerging issues which or the link

between what is andwhat ought to be. It is easy to follow the

modalities for assessment and accountability of proper

standard and monitoring are first addressed first

Be that as it may,from the beginning as it may the main role

of assessment and accountability is for sustainability and

possible innovation or improvement

In conclusion, higher education cannot be exempted from

increasing societal expectations of accountability because

that is the main base for economic growth and advancement

especially towards achievement of MDG goals. The challenge

facing those who has the responsibility of assessment is to

create a sustainable improvement of standard of accountability

and assessment.They should make it clear what approaches can

measure potentially relevant education outcomes by addressing

the goals, processes and programs. Examples of required

competences should be displayed as no one claims

ineffectiveness or inefficiency of the desired impact of

educational programs when haphazard assessment and

accountability was employed. Using the right approach and

strategies for assessment coupled with the right goals will

helps the system. The need for assessment cannot be eroded

by personal interest or unfocused interest, geared towards

personal vendetta. To create the right motives, it is good to

outline guidelines, follows strategy and employ measurable and

workable approaches for assessment and accountability. It

would also be advisable to recommend that uniform tools for

measurement be the guiding principles while sustainability of

standard, improvement and upgrading of process be the

driving force behind assessment and accountability.

The issue of integrity is another focus which is better

handled in another write up. But suffix it here to say that

assessment and accountability is not new in education or any

sector, but imbedded in educational system and process in all

educational ramifications.

Dr.(Mrs) Ijeoma Blessing Anumaka

Senior Lecturer &Principal Consultant

Kampala International University(KIU) Uganda