Is a successful assessment program principally a question ofAssessment can have a profound transformational impact on an institution. For this result to occur, however, such core values as the improvement of student learning through the systematic collection of performance-related data and information must become integrated into the institution' s culture. Successful assessment is much more than techniques, processes, or even outcomes; it is a cultural issue that affects how a community of scholars defines its work and its responsibilities to its students. Significantly, the culture of assessment is typically a somewhat unstable arrangement, which requires continual nurture and support even at an institution with undergraduate education at the heart of its mission. A vigorous assessment program will require the faculty to step outside the security of their disciplines or departments, to view student learning from a holistic perspective, and to accept collective responsibility for the success of their institution' s educational program. In the contemporary academy, this level of commitment is neither easy to initiate nor easy to sustain. Yet, the rewards for success can be enormous for both faculty and students. This is the story of one institution' s effort to address these difficult issues.

Over the last 30 years, higher education has received the assessment movement with a substantial amount of skepticism. The purpose of this study is to advance our understanding of political science's responsiveness to assessment reform pressures using neoinstitutional theory. The influence of public status, institutional type, and accreditation region on curricular planning and assessment responsiveness is tested. Using an index to measure the responsiveness of a stratified, random sample of program descriptions at 241 U.S. institutions, results show relatively low levels of curricular planning and assessment responsiveness by political science departments. Institutional type and accreditation region are correlated with level of responsiveness.

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