Editor’s Note

Before beginning its partnership with the Pennsylvania State University Press in producing JAIE, the New England Educational Assessment Network (NEEAN) self-published a single issue distributed, quite literally, from the trunk of a car. Believing that the articles presented in that pilot endeavor are deserving of a wider distribution, we have elected to republish three of these pieces as part of issue 2.2: Jason Barrett’s account of efforts to assess writing in the humanities at Lawrence Technological University; Ann Rancourt’s analysis of a multiple-year project aimed at assessing an innovative new emphasis on the development of integrative skills among students at Keene State College; and the lessons learned by Curt Naser, Karen Donoghue, and Stephanie Burrell in the course of incorporating residence life staff into the assessment process at Fairfield University.

JAIE 2.2 includes two new articles as well. A team of colleagues at Southern Connecticut University has devoted considerable energy to studying the impact of the institution’s comprehensive First-Year Experience program. Added to the report of their findings and taking the lead position in this issue is a commentary by Martha Stassen, the president of NEEAN. We consider making a positive difference in the advancement of student learning to be one of the most critical elements in our organization’s mission. A portion of that responsibility includes challenging trends that we view as counterproductive to the greater good in higher education. President Stassen, therefore, offers on NEEAN’s behalf a critique of contemporary initiatives in accountability-based assessment. We hope that you will find her arguments, in combination with the reprised and original scholarship offered herein, both intellectually stimulating and catalytic to the submission of your own work for consideration.