The Office of Student Outcomes Assessment (SOA) embraces "transformational change" as described by Thomas Angelo (Doing Assessment As If Learning Matters Most, AAHE, May 1999).

Thus, in order to move beyond piecemeal and superficial change and toward transformation, we need to develop a learning community-like culture among the faculty and administrators involved in assessment. Four basic preconditions are key to this collective personal mastery. First, we need to develop shared trust; second, shared visions and goals; and third, shared language and concepts. Fourth, we need to identify research-based guidelines that can orient our assessment efforts toward the goal of creating productive learning communities.

Moreover, SOA is in agreement with Angelo's definition of assessment as published in Reassessing and Redefining Assessment (AAHE Bulletin, November 1995, Volume 48 Number 3, pages 7-9).

...making our expectations explicit and public; setting appropriate criteria and high expectations for learning quality; systematically gathering, analyzing, and interpreting evidence to determine how well performance matches those expectations and standards; and using the resulting information to document, explain, and improve performance...