From Academic Principles to Holistic Assessment Practice: Student Affairs Assessment Leaders’ Affirmation of ACCELERATE’s Vision for Holistic Assessment

The Student Affairs Assessment Leaders (SAAL) were excited to hear about, contribute to, and endorse the ACCELERATE: Assessment Principles of Best Practice (SamugaGyaanam+Bheda et al. , 2025). SAAL represents a host of assessment professionals who have used the Nine Principles of Good Practice for Assessing Student Learning (Astin et al. , 1992; 1996) since their inception as a guiding framework in teaching assessment practice and implementing assessment in the co-curricular space, though their original intent was curricular learning. These stakeholders appreciate that the ACCELERATE authors intentionally worked to honor and build off those foundational principles. The concerted effort for the ACCELERATE framework to cover and be inclusive of student affairs and co-curricular assessment efforts represents just how far our field has come since the Nine Principles. SAAL is proud to have had several of our board members and leaders from the organization directly participate in offering feedback or authoring the ACCELERATE framework; we wish to celebrate the publishing of this work as it affords a resource and reference for educators to align their practice.