June 27, 2008

The Value Added in College

To the Editor:

The Collegiate Learning Assessment denotes two things to college administrators who are grappling with providing the public with meaningful accountability indicators: an exam designed to test critical-thinking, problem-solving, and writing prowess; and an unorthodox procedure for computing growth in critical-thinking, problem-solving, and writing prowess with cross-sectional data ("Test Touted as 2 Studies Question Its Value," The Chronicle, June 6). When it comes to the