Media Alert

Contact: Debra Humphreys
Vice President for Communications and Public Affairs
202-387-3760
Humphreys@aacu.org

Business Leaders Weigh In On Higher Education’s
Assessment and Accountability Debates

New Survey Shows that Business Leaders Are Looking for Real Improvements in Learning Outcomes, But Judge Some Forms of Assessments Much More Useful Than Others

Event: “How Should Colleges Assess and Improve Student Learning? Employers’ Views on the Accountability Challenge”
(Release of New Findings from National Survey of Business Leaders)

Date/Time: January 22, 2008, 10:30 a.m. The full report will be posted online just prior to a conference call with reporters at 10:30 a.m. Embargoed advance copies of the report will be available on January 18th.

Washington, DC—January 14, 2008—The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) will release the findings from a new national survey of business leaders and discuss them with reporters in a conference call on January 22, 2008 at 10:30 a.m. Sponsored by AAC&U’s Liberal Education and America’s Promise campaign, the report to be released provides findings from a survey conducted by Peter D. Hart Research in November/December 2007 with more than 300 business leaders from across the country.

The survey findings show that employers see room for improvement in the skills and knowledge recent college graduates are bringing to the workplace. They judge several common approaches to assessment inadequate to the task of preparing students for success in today’s competitive global economy.

“This research shows why employers are so worried about underachievement in college,” said AAC&U President Carol Geary Schneider. “But it also shows that employers have no faith in some of the assessment practices that were recommended in the Spellings Commission report and that are now being adopted by many public institutions.”

Participants in the conference call will include:

• Carol Geary Schneider, president, Association of American Colleges and Universities
• Abigail Davenport, senior vice president, Peter D. Hart Research
• Wayne Johnson, vice president of university relations, Hewlett-Packard
• Roberts Jones, president, Education Workforce Policy, LLC
• Deborah Traskell, Executive Vice President, State Farm Insurance Companies

For information about participating in the conference call and/or receiving an embargoed copy of the report on the survey, contact Ursula Gross at gross@aacu.org.

AAC&U is the leading national association concerned with the quality, vitality, and public standing of undergraduate liberal education. Its members are committed to extending the advantages of a liberal education to all students, regardless of academic specialization or intended career. Founded in 1915, AAC&U now comprises more than 1,150 accredited public and private colleges and universities of every type and size.

AAC&U functions as a catalyst and facilitator, forging links among presidents, administrators, and faculty members who are engaged in institutional and curricular planning. Its mission is to reinforce the collective commitment to liberal education at both the national and local levels and to help individual institutions keep the quality of student learning at the core of their work as they evolve to meet new economic and social challenges.

Information about AAC&U membership, programs, and publications can be found on the AAC&U Web site.