Assessing the Practices of Public Scholarship (APPS)

Assessing the full impact of public scholarship necessitates involving non-higher education partners along with students, faculty, and the college or university itself. Imagining America calls this integrated assessment, recognizing that too often assessment rests solely in the hands of the academic partners: students evaluating courses and tenure and promotion committees evaluating participating faculty. Integrated assessment considers the civic, social, and academic goals involved in public scholarship projects and all the stakeholders who make such work possible. Thus we look at outcomes in the public sphere as well as in terms of the institution’s own practices, positions, contributions, and benefits accruing from civic engagement and knowledge building. Developing and adopting integrated assessment practices advances the reciprocal value of publicly engaged scholarship and practice, thereby serving IA’s mission of strengthening the public role and democratic purposes of the humanities, arts, and design within the continuum of disciplinary and interdisciplinary practices.