Over the past few decades, deterioration in student achievement has provoked a pervasive sentiment that American institutions are failing to meet the needs and expectations of society. The growing demand for transparency and accountability has fueled the integration of state-mandated learning outcomes assessment into the standards established by regional accrediting agencies. The assessment of student learning outcomes (SLOs) serves as one strategy to improve the scholarship of teaching and learning as well as provide evidence for institutional effectiveness. Though SLOs have been present in the institutional landscape for many years, colleges are still struggling to establish a consistent and sustained program for outcomes assessment. Many college departments have developed SLO assessment plans but continue to face challenges in their implementation. Through interviews with key individuals involved in the SLO assessment process at a California community college, this study investigates the factors that can affect the ability of institutions to implement and institutionalize outcomes assessment efforts. Background American institutions of post-secondary education have played an integral role in preserving the economic security and prosperity from the individual level to the national level. In recent decades, however, post-secondary education has been plagued by skepticism. Community stakeholders - students, parents, employers, accrediting agencies, and state and federal government officials - have begun to demand that institutions of higher education be held accountable for student learning (Albert, 1991; Eaton, 2003). Various reports documenting the external pressures on educational practices have spurred a wave of educational reform efforts at the local, state, and federal levels (NCEE, 1983; NIESG, 1984; Gross and Gross, 1985; SREB, 1985; NGA, 1986; WGHE, 1993; Kirsch et al., 1993; Stone, 1995; and, Shulock & Moore, 2007). An essential element in this process has been the paradigm shift from a teaching-centered to a learning-centered environment. Since the overarching purpose is to enhance student learning and improve student performance, accreditation standards have incorporated outcomes assessment to document student learning. Many researchers claim that outcomes and assessment are instruments to improve education, to repair [the] educational system, and to hold institutions accountable to the public (Fulks, 2007). Institutions are being asked to state the learning expectations of their students as well as to provide evidence through assessment that those expectations are being met. Thus, student learning outcomes have assumed the role as the principal gauge of higher education's effectiveness (Ruhland & Brewer, 2001). Student learning outcomes (SLOs) are defined as knowledge, skills, and abilities that a student has attained at the end (or as a result) of his or her engagement in a particular set of higher education experiences (Council for Higher Education Accreditation, 2002) . The purpose of SLOs is to examine current practices and processes in order to improve student learning and enable student success. A five-phase assessment cycle can be used to organize the process of developing and assessing SLOs: the alignment to the college mission and goals, the development of an outcome and an assessment plan, the performance of the assessment, a summary of the findings, and the integration of the findings into practice to inform practices and improve student learning. Although most colleges have initiated the process of learning assessment through SLOs, many face challenges in implementing and sustaining such efforts at a broader and more consistent level. At many campuses, there are pockets and waves of assessment activity but the institutionalization of outcomes assessment is still distant (Wilson, Miles, Baker, & Schoenberger, 2000). Within the colleges, many departments have stalled at the third phase of the assessment cycle, which is to perform the intended assessment at the classroom, program, or institutional level. …