Valid Assessment of Learning in Undergraduate Education (VALUE) Initiative

From 2007 to 2009, teams of faculty experts representing colleges and universities across the United States worked together to develop 16 VALUE rubrics. The rubrics articulate fundamental criteria for the related learning outcomes and include performance descriptors demonstrating progressively more sophisticated levels of attainment. Utilized by more than 5,600 discrete organizations across 159 countries, the VALUE rubrics have made an essential contribution to the dialogue on the assessment of college learning.

The VALUE Scoring Collaborative (formerly the VALUE Institute) provides a resource for higher education programs, states, and institutions to document, report, and use evidence on learning outcomes to improve student success. AAC&U invites higher education organizations to support the Collaborative by collecting samples of student work, transferring these artifacts and assignments to the digital depository, and having VALUE Scoring Collaborative experts score them using the VALUE rubrics.

Guided by an international team of education assessment experts, AAC&U is currently developing the VALUE ADD suite of tools. These tools will help faculty and instructional designers create effective assignments aligned with VALUE rubrics to evoke identified learning outcomes.

The VALUE Academy of Professional Development offers an array of affordable professional development opportunities to the higher education community throughout the year, in-person, hybrid, and fully virtual. The goal of the Academy is to provide the training and tools needed to implement VALUE effectively at a variety of institutions.

Need to cite the VALUE rubrics or VALUE ADD tools? Want to reproduce them for any reason? We've provided specific instructions for citing and using the VALUE resources on this page.