Call for Contributions: Forthcoming Book on Leadership for Assessment and Improvement
As a follow-up to the recently-published Trends in Assessment: Ideas, Opportunities, and Issues for Higher Education (Stylus Publishing, October 2019), Stephen Hundley and Susan Kahn, co-editors of Trends in Assessment, are developing a new Stylus book entitled Leadership for Assessment and Improvement: Institutional Imperatives and Stakeholder Engagement. This book is anticipated for release in early 2021.
Purpose and Scope
The purpose of Leadership for Assessment and Improvement is to equip higher education leaders, both formal and informal, with knowledge, examples, and resources to advance institutional imperatives and stakeholder engagement strategies that support student learning and success in various settings. These include macro-level views of institutions as entire entities, or particular divisions, academic units, departments, or program therein. Thus, leaders at any “altitude” or context should find the book useful to advancing their work.
Leadership for Assessment and Improvement begins with an introduction outlining the volume’s purpose, the contexts for and nature of leadership, a recap of meta-trends from Trends in Assessment and the ways in which they inform this work, and a preview of the remainder of the book. The book’s conclusion will provide perspectives on future directions, the competencies needed for effective leadership, and an opportunity for action planning. Ten intervening chapters are divided into two parts: one focusing on institutional imperatives and another on stakeholder engagement.
Part 1 addresses institutional imperatives leaders must foster for meaningful assessment and improvement to occur:
- Make assessment and improvement a strategic institutional priority;
- Attract and retain talent to support assessment and improvement;
- Develop capacity for assessment and improvement;
- Reward, recognize, and promote assessment and improvement; and
- Sustain a culture supportive of assessment and improvement.
Part 2 addresses stakeholder engagement leaders must cultivate for meaningful assessment and improvement to occur:
- Student engagement;
- Faculty and staff engagement
- Community members and employers engagement
- Alumni engagement; and
- Institutional partner, policymaker, and influencer engagement.
Audience
The audience for Leadership for Assessment and Improvement includes a diverse mix of readers from all disciplines, institutional types, and levels of experience in assessment. Because the book’s title and theme focus on leadership, leaders—both those with formal leadership titles and those who play informal, yet often highly influential, roles on their campuses or in their units—are one primary audience. Others will also benefit from the unique contributions this book makes to the assessment literature. Faculty, student affairs professionals, those involved in accreditation activities (both regional and specialized), policymakers, researchers, and students of higher education are important secondary audiences.
Vignettes Sought for Inclusion in Book Chapters
Faculty, administrators, and staff members from all institutional settings are invited to submit vignettes of approximately 800 words aligned to one of the chapters focusing on institutional imperatives or stakeholder engagement. These vignettes are intended to amplify each chapter’s contents by providing specific examples of how a particular institutional imperative and stakeholder engagement strategy is implemented in various contexts. Each vignette should include the following information:
- Institutional context, including Carnegie Classification
- Description of initiative related to a particular institutional imperative or stakeholder engagement strategy, including how it was implemented
- Outcome of the strategy/initiative
- Success factors, including what worked and recommendations for adaptation elsewhere
- How the strategy/initiative was sustained
- Lessons learned and pitfalls to avoid
Process for Submitting a Vignette
Date |
Activity |
Monday, December 2, 2019 |
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Wednesday, January 15, 2020 |
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Throughout the spring semester in 2020 |
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For More Information
When we may answer questions or provide additional information about the Call for Contributions to Leadership for Assessment and Improvement: Institutional Imperatives and Stakeholder Engagement, please contact:
Stephen P. Hundley, Ph.D. Senior Advisor to the Chancellor and Professor of Organizational Leadership Planning and Institutional Improvement IUPUI 317-274-2876 shundley@iupui.edu |
Susan Kahn, Ph.D. Director of Planning and Institutional Improvement Initiatives Planning and Institutional Improvement IUPUI 317-278-3604 skahn@iupui.edu |