In the next couple of weeks, I’ll explain why we’ve historically tried (and failed) to measure learning and the importance of doing so now. Provide my early, and undoubtedly imperfect, ideas about how we might do that. And, importantly, distinguish what I’m envisioning from the accreditation- and accountability-driven “assessment” that a lot of you (not wrongly) view as the devil. Today’s column offers my best attempt to explain how we ended up here: lacking, as I argued previously, “tangible, direct and incontrovertible proof that colleges and universities actually help learners develop the capabilities, skills and habits of mind that the institutions purport to deliver.”