Using Data for Improvement or Not?

The Chronicle of Higher Education, July 15, 2009
"Many Colleges Assess learning But May Not Use data to Improve Survey Says"

This is a very short article, but the jist of it indicates that although colleges are collecting data on learning they are not using the data for improvement of programs, courses or student learning.
Stanely O. Ikenberry, stressesd to higher ed leaders that colleges are doing more to assess student learning, but campuses are are not doing enough to use the data they collect to improve teaching and learning. He says that campuses and state officials should do more to stress the broader social purpose of assessing learning, and do more to focus attention on how the data can be used to make improvements.
The most common response to how institutions use information about how well learning objectives are met was to fulfill accrediatation requirements.
Ikenberry found that the most common tool used to assess learning outcomes is a survey of alumni, employers, students, or some combination of those groups, less than half of the respondents used some form of standardized testing. In the survey, campus officials reported significant restistance from faculty members to measure student learning.
There is a common thread in all of the blogs I am reporting. . .resistance and not using data for improvement of learning and teaching.