<p><i>Improving Quality in American Higher Education: Learning Outcomes and Assessments for the 21^st Century</i> comes out of a nationally significant effort to bring faculty voices to the fore of conversations concerning college quality in the U.S. It is the culmination of over two years of efforts from groups of faculty and disciplinary association leaders from six fields of study that account for some 40 percent of undergraduate majors: biology, business, communication, economics, history, and sociology. The book contends that there is a need for greater clarity, intentionality, and quality in US higher education—a need for faculty to structure academic programs around a clear set of high-quality learning goals and to rigorously measure students’ progress towards those goals.</p> <p><br />Synthesizing and expanding upon decades of prior conversations, each chapter articulates a set of "essential concepts and competencies"—ideas and skills that faculty believe are fundamental to the field, valuable to students, and worth emphasizing given limited time and resources. They represent a significant level of national consensus among faculty today, and are reflective of the kinds of high-level understandings and skills that society demands of today’s college graduates. Each chapter also presents a persuasive and creative vision for the future of assessment in the field, discussing rigorous, 21^st-century assessment tools that are valued by faculty, students, and society.</p>