Clearly, these challenges of continuity, coordination, and institutional
commitment need to be addressed in crafting an assessment program that can succeed in
the current academic and social context . However, their importance is only secondary
when compared to challenges involved in overcoming the kind of rational faculty
resistance to assessment described in this paper. I believe that the challenge of rational
resistance is not insurmountable, although many of the proposed solutions to this problem
do not adequately account for the ways that faculty members weigh and perceive the
costs and benefits involved in assessment. According to the analysis presented here,
locally designed and driven assessment solutions are more likely to succeed. Their
deficiencies in terms of coordination and consistency can be addressed once they are
implemented, and their significant advantage lies in the fact that have the greatest
potential for motivating faulty acceptance of and engagement in the assessment process, a
necessary if not sufficient condition for doing good assessment.
15
Convention