AUSTIN – Thomas Lindsay, Ph.D., Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Director of the Center for Higher Education, will testify before the Senate Higher Education Committee in favor of Senate Bill 436, the Collegiate Assessment Bill, on April 17, 2013, at 8:30 a.m. in room E1.012 at the Texas State Capitol. SB 436 would bring needed transparency and accountability to Texas public higher education by requiring Texas schools to administer the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) to all students during their freshman and senior years.
“The CLA measures the academic value-added from investing four years in college by gauging how much students increase in crucial academic skills-critical thinking, complex reasoning, and clear writing,” said Lindsay. “The need for this bill is illustrated in the results of the landmark national study of student learning, Academically Adrift, which documents that 36 percent of students nationally show little to no increase in these crucial academic skills after four years in college. We must address this issue if our children are to become effective employees and thoughtful citizens. The CLA bill is a proper step in that direction.”
Thomas K. Lindsay, Ph.D., is the Director of the Center for Higher Education at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin.
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