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Mo institutions involved in international educational outcomes

Truman is one of the colleges participating in the initiative
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Truman is one of the colleges participating in the initiative

A handful of Missouri colleges and universities are playing a key role in a global effort to assess educational outcomes of students across international boundaries.

The idea behind the global assessment initiative is to see if it’s possible to create a set of uniform criteria that employers, government and other institutions across the globe can use as a measure of graduates across international borders.

Rusty Monhollon  is the assistant commissioner for academic affairs with the Missouri Department of Higher Education. He said currently, it’s hard to know how to compare a U. S. college graduate with graduates in other countries.

"This is trying to assess the value of an American baccalaureate degree in terms of knowledge and skills with the Japanese equivalent of that, or the English, or the Italian, or the Russian equivalent of that."

The U. S. Department of Education is funding the U.S. involvement in the initiative.

It’s part of a larger project that originated in Europe through the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

Five Missouri colleges are participating, with five other American and 15 international institutions. Missouri’s input is coming from Truman State University, Central Methodist University, Missouri State University, the University of Central Missouri and Webster University.

Janet Saidi is a producer and professor at KBIA and the Missouri School of Journalism.