Benchmarking for Success

The goal of an educational program is to ensure that students learn what is being taught. In medical imaging, this goal needs to be expanded to include that students also apply this knowledge and skills in the health care setting. One way to measure if these goals are being met is to develop an assessment plan (see Box 1). Developing an assessment plan is common for higher education institutions. Institutional and programmatic accreditation rely on the use of assessment plans to provide transparency and accountability on the effectiveness of student learning. The Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiologic Technology (JRCERT) Standard Six, Objective 6.3 requires accredited programs to develop assessment plans that, “Gather useful data to measure the goals and student learning outcomes to facilitate program improvement.”