From Compliance to Coherence

Aligning Assessment with Student Success for Meaningful Impact

Abstract

Assessment in higher education has too often become an institutional ritual: collect evidence, complete the report, close the loop, archive the file, and wait for the next accreditation cycle. This chapter argues that the real problem is not compliance itself but incoherence. Assessment, student success, curriculum, faculty development, accreditation, and student voice often operate as parallel systems rather than as a shared structure for understanding and improving learning. To move from compliance to coherence, institutions must redesign assessment as educational infrastructure. Curriculum maps must become living representations of where learning is introduced, practiced, assessed, supported, and demonstrated. Student success metrics must be interpreted alongside direct evidence of learning. Centers for Teaching and Learning must help translate assessment findings into pedagogical action. Student voice must be treated as evidence rather than ornamentation. Accreditors must be engaged with evidence stories that demonstrate not only programmatic assessment, but also learning progression, equity, and meaningful improvement. The chapter offers a practical framework for building assessment cultures that satisfy external expectations while doing something more important: improving the educational conditions students actually experience.