Though I actually think that the word “assessment” has been poisoned beyond redemption, checking into whether we are accomplishing what we hope to accomplish should become a routine part of what we do and what we teach our students to do. And doing so “actively” makes all the sense in the world.

However, here’s my main concern, which doesn’t necessarily challenge what you say but adds a qualifier: Most of us who teach college are not ready for meaningful assessment, active or passive. You begin your post by describing the move to “active assessment” as a step that comes (at least historically) after the move from the teaching to the learning paradigm. But most college teachers have not (yet?) made that shift.

I think that pushing assessment before (as Mike Rose puts it) “helping professors become better teachers” is going to be or rather has already proven to be in most cases extremely counterproductive. If we are going to think of pedagogical faculty development sequentially, I think that meaningful assessment is an advanced skill, one that cannot be skipped ahead to. In my view, putting it first (in addition to putting it punitively and putting it as a mandate without adequate funding or support) has been the downfall of the assessment movement.

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Paul T. Corrigan
Teaching & Learning in Higher Ed.