The Rise of Value-added Assessment Mode and Application in American Higher Education
The value-added assessment movement has arisen at the universities in the US,which is to evaluate the impact of higher education.Being student-oriented,it pays close attention to the growth and development of university students and thus aims at enhancing the quality of undergraduate education and responding to social accountability.Value-added assessment chiefly measures the change students have undergone during their undergraduate years.Three methods can be applied in the measurement: they are direct value-added assessment,indirect value-added assessment and applied value-added assessment.The added value of students is a manifestation of the quality of higher education.Value-added assessment,as a new education quality evaluation system,centers on the process of education and the learning outcomes of students.It goes beyond the previous empirical assessment models mainly based on the standard of "input".In the deep sense,value-added assessment embodies the real spirit of universities.