Daring to Stop: Challenging Program-Level Learning Outcome Measurement in Urban Planning Accreditation

Abstract

In past decades, accreditors have asked planning programs in North America to perform increasingly elaborate assessments of student learning. Most recent is a requirement for directly measuring program-level learning outcomes (PLLOs). I ask, does this measurement improve professional planning education? Do the benefits of such measures outweigh the costs? While it seems sensible to pay attention to what students learn, I argue that directly measuring PLLOs is both burdensome and ineffective. That is, planning programs are being asked to do something that wastes time yet we comply out of fear or inertia. It is time to stop.