David Brooks, in today’s New York Times, discusses the need for value-added evaluations of colleges, given that ” that nearly half the students showed no significant gain in critical thinking, complex reasoning and writing skills during their first two years in college.”

Many people in higher ed are understandably anxious about importing the No Child Left Behind accountability model onto college campuses. But the good news is that colleges and universities are not reacting to the idea of testing and accountability with blanket hostility, the way some of the members of the K-12 establishment did…

The challenge is not getting educators to embrace the idea of assessment. It’s mobilizing them to actually enact it in a way that’s real and transparent to outsiders.