Ensuring a More Equitable Future: Assessing Student Learning and Growth in Higher Education

In the past decade, public sentiment has shifted increasingly to question the value of a college education. These concerns have diverse causes, including the rising cost and questions about the return on investment of higher education, the growing precariousness and insecurity of middle-class households regarding paying for higher education, and changes to the supply of and demand for highly educated workers. Recognizing that non-economic outcomes can be challenging to quantify, the authors have launched the Next Generation Undergraduate Success Measurement Project, which uses diverse forms of data (including surveys, performance assessments, administrative records, learning management system data, and experiential sampling) alongside information on students' longitudinal trajectories to define near- and long-term measures of the multifaceted benefits students derive from college attendance. In this paper, ways of conceptualizing and measuring the value of college education through longitudinal observation of undergraduate student experiences, attitudes, and behaviors are articulated. The paper begins by briefly reviewing prior work measuring higher education learning outcomes that informs the project's efforts. The sections that follow go on to discuss how to attempt to measure aspects of undergraduate student growth and development, which can provide a framework for identifying the value of attending postsecondary institutions in a manner aligned with the achievement of later life course success. The paper focuses on: (1) measuring cognitive ability and intellectual dispositions; (2) development of identity and adaptive life-course agency; (3) self-regulation skills; (4) social capital; (5) civic engagement; and (6) mental health and psychological flourishing. The paper concludes with reflections on the challenges and opportunities surrounding efforts to define and measure the value of higher education.