Assessment Drivers and Practices in Undergraduate Psychology Programs: A Survey of Associate and Baccalaureate Degree Programs Robin Hailstorks American Psychological Association Washington, DC John C. Norcross University of Scranton Rory A. Pfund University of Memphis Leona S. Aiken Arizona State University Karen E. Stamm and Peggy Christidis American Psychological Association Washington, DC The Undergraduate Study in Psychology (USP) is a collaborative effort of the American Psychological Association (APA) Board of Educational Affairs, the Education Directorate, and the Center for Workforce Studies to collect information on undergraduate psychology programs, faculty, students, and curriculum. The overall goal of USP is to paint a portrait of undergraduate education in psychology over time by surveying various aspects of undergraduate education biennially. APA’s USP gathered data on the 2014 curricular offerings and assessment practices of associate (n = 110) and baccalaureate (n = 329) psychology programs across the nation. The USP included questions concerning learning goals, program reviews, and two clusters of questions from the National Institute on Learning Outcomes Assessment concerning assessment drivers and practices. Eighty-eight percent of associate programs and 94% of baccalaureate programs reported formal learning goals, and the vast majority of those programs incorporated into their learning goals portions of the APA Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major (2007). Most undergraduate psychology programs routinely performed program reviews; however, 40% of associate programs and 14% of baccalaureate programs did not do so. The most frequently used assessment methods were rubrics to evaluate student work, locally devel- oped exams, locally developed student surveys, and assessment of final projects. Despite considerable heterogeneity in the results, institutional accreditation requirements, faculty/ staff interest, program commitment, institutional commitment, and internal program review requirements were rated as the strongest drivers of assessment among psychology pro- grams, a pattern generally consistent with drivers in other academic disciplines. Keywords: undergraduate education, teaching psychology, student learning outcomes, program reviews, assessment practices Calls for accountability in higher education have been persistent and widespread for several decades (Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2002, 2007; U.S. Department of Education, 2006). Both external forces (e.g., national and state government, higher education This article was published Online First May 16, 2016. Robin Hailstorks, Education Directorate, American Psychological Association Washington, DC; John C. Norcross, Department of Psychology, University of Scranton; Rory A. Pfund, Department of Psychology, University of Memphis; Leona S. Aiken, Department of Psychology, Arizona State University; Karen E. Stamm and Peggy Christidis, Education Directorate, American Psychological Association Washington, DC. Correspondence concerning this article should be ad- dressed to Robin Hailstorks, Education Directorate, American Psychological Association, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242. E-mail: rhailstorks@ apa.org This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology © 2016 American Psychological Association 2016, Vol. 2, No. 2, 99 –111 2332-2101/16/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/stl0000059 99