Despite the long presence of assessment and quality assurance in US higher education, questions and concerns about higher education quality in this higher education system have been salient for the last several decades. Compliance and student learning are two frequently competing rationales for the implementation of assessment practices. This article explores assessment processes in three public universities in the United States to illustrate common challenges harmonizing these two rationales. The analysis compared institutions along four dimensions: (a) accountability, (b) educational mission, (c) assessment framework, and (d) student learning outcomes. Based on the present analysis, we argue that assessment for accreditation compliance and assessment for student learning are in fact different processes, based on the way they are implemented in US institutions. As a result, we claim that assessment for accreditation compliance is insufficient for improving higher education quality when student learning is taken into consideration. By studying the application of tuning in the United States, this paper also contributes to cross-national analyses and the comparative literature in higher education.

尽管在美国高等教育中长期存在评估和质量保证的问题，但在过去的几十年中，对这种高等教育系统中的高等教育质量的质疑和关注一直是突出的。遵从和学生学习是实施评估实践的两个经常相互竞争的理由。本文探讨了美国三所公立大学的评估流程，以说明协调这两种理论的共同挑战。分析从四个方面对机构进行了比较：（a）问责制，（b）教育任务，（c）评估框架和（d）学生学习成果。根据目前的分析，我们认为，根据在美国机构中实施认证的方式，对认证合规性的评估和对学生学习的评估实际上是不同的过程。因此，我们认为，考虑到学生的学习，对认证合规性的评估不足以提高高等教育质量。通过研究调音在美国的应用，本文也为跨国分析和高等教育中的比较文献做出了贡献。