FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                        December 21, 2007 

GARLOUGH PAPER PRESENTED AT IRAQI EDUCATION CONFERENCE 

            Dr. Katherine Garlough, director of assessment and institutional effectiveness at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, is co-author of an academic paper presented last week at the International Conference on Higher Education in Iraq. The meeting was held at Erbil, Kurdistan-Iraq.

            The paper was co-authored by Dr. Beriwan Khailany, currently deputy minister in the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Kurdistan, Iraq. Beriwan was a visiting professor in micropaleontology at the University of Oklahoma and was a guest speaker at Northwestern in October. Beriwan attended the Conference and presented the paper, titled “Emerging Trends in Evaluating Faculty Effectiveness: An Inclusive Model of Assessing High Education in Kurdistan.”

            Garlough said the paper was the only one from the United States to be selected for the conference; all others originated in Europe or the Middle East.

            The paper discusses the use of faculty portfolio system to evaluate critical areas of faculty research, service to society, and teaching. Through analysis of several portfolios, Garlough and Beriwan identified elements conducive to the Kurdistan higher education system. Those include publication productivity, pedagogy, community service, professional service and service to the institution.

            The authors concluded that if properly implemented, the benefit of the portfolio structure to Kurdistan higher education would be an effective assessment of faculty for improvement, growth and development of both the individual and the institution and aid in the development of the region.

            Garlough said Beriwan told her the paper was very well received and that plans are being made to implement the portfolio system in Kurdistan.

            In addition to writing the paper with Beriwan, Garlough last month accompanied the Iraqi ministry official during a series of meetings in Washington, D.C. with the Department of State to discuss the possibility of Iraqi graduate students coming to Northwestern to continue their studies.

            Garlough is in her first year as assessment director at the university. For several years, she served as administrator of a United States Agency for International Development project to assess, support and revitalize the institutions of higher education and scientific research in Iraq.

            Since 2003, she has maintained long-standing associations with Iraq’s ministers of higher education and with university presidents. She has been a member of the board of directors for the Association for the Study of Higher Education. Garlough has published internationally in the area of assessment in higher education and nationally about college student death policy.

-NW-

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