IHE: Admissions Revolution

Article: Admissions Revolution
Author: Scott Jaschik
Publication: Inside Higher Ed
Date: September 29, 2015

In this article, Jaschik describes a revolutionary approach to college admissions adopted by 80+ institutions of higher learning.  Developed and adopted by the newly-formed Coalition for Access, Affordability, and Success, this new protocol seeks to set up a more holistic application process for prospective students.

While the majority of the article is not directly related to assessment in higher education, I found it notable that one major component of the initiative is an online platform on which high school students will build electronic admissions portfolios, beginning in their ninth grade year:

The high school student's portfolio: This would be offered to all high school students, free, and they would be encouraged to add to it, starting in ninth grade, examples of their best work, short essays on what they most proud of, descriptions of their extracurricular activities and so forth. Students could opt to share or not share all or part of their portfolios, but college admissions leaders would provide regular prompts, appropriate for grades nine and up, and questions students should ask about how they are preparing for college.

Not only does this initiative reinforce the importance of portfolio assessment in education, it also may in time provide a commonly accepted framework for what a "successful" ePortfolio looks like.  This would be of great use to higher education institutions looking to expand upon or create portfolio or capstone forms of assessment.  Furthermore, beginning in the 2019-2020 school year, institutions of higher learning will begin enrolling students who come to college with a ready-made four-year portfolio.  How can colleges build upon these efforts?

Read the original article for more details on the other aspects of the new admissions process.