UPdate Progress, Trends, and Practices in Higher Education Assessment and Program Review: Linking Two Processes

higher education to improve educational quality. Assessment, begun in the 1980s, is used in a variety of ways to improve teaching and student learning and can be employed in the classroom or at the unit level. Program review as described in this article has functioned on a statewide basis in Illi-nois since the mid-1970s as a result of a state statute establishing the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE). Assessment and program review function at different time intervals, but each poses similar questions regarding teaching and student learning (for example, What are the characteristics of a powerful learning environment?). When assessment and program review are linked, the academic unit can function like the learn-ing organization described by Senge (1990) and can provide insight into the improve-ment of educational quality. Authentic Assessment Through a Senior Assignment At Southern Illinois University–Edwardsville (SIUE), we define a Senior Assignment (SRA) as a scholarly engagement between a senior student and a dedicated professor (or professors), embedded in the ways of knowing of the discipline, that results in