Assessment 101

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Assessment 101

• Presented to GER Subcommittee
• FCCJ
• April 19, 2007

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What Do We Mean By Assessment?

• Assessment of student learning can be defined as
  the systematic collection of information about
  student learningin order to inform decisions
  about how to improve learning.

- Barbara Walvoord, Assessment Plain and Simple
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Assessment Process - Program Level
Determine learning outcomes to be assessed
Review/improve process
Choose an assessment model - e.g.
curriculum-embedded assessment
Map outcomes to curriculum
Adapt/adopt/ develop rubrics
Implement rubrics, gather and compile results
Review/interpret results, recommend strategies to
improve student learning
Implement strategies
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Classroom Program
Feedback to Students
Evidence of Student Performance (Assignments,
Tests, Papers)
Performance Criteria Established by Instructor
Evaluation of Student Performance by Instructor
Feedback to Instructor
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Classroom Program
Feedback to Students
Evaluation of Student Performance by Instructor
Evidence of Student performance (Assignments,
Tests, Papers)
Performance Criteria Established by Common Rubric
Feedback to Instructor
Feedback to Instructor
Evaluation by Faculty Teams
Feedback to Department and College
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What we do for Program Assessment

• Track student completion of programs
• Track student success in selected program
  components (e.g. developmental), based on grades
  and exit exams
• Track student success in transfer institutions,
  based on grades
• Track CLAST pass rates
• Track pass rates on licensure examinations in
  professional programs

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What we dont do

• Systematically gather evidence of student
  learning that occurs in a program of study
• (Starting to do this in some workforce
  programs)

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Who said it?

• We don't really have any information that tells
  us how good higher education is, from the
  standpoint of student learning. We know kids go
  to college, we don't know whether they actually
  learn anything while they're there.

• Margaret Spellings, US Secretary of Education
• Kay McClenny, University of Texas-Austin and
  Director, CCSSE
• Father Guido Sarducci

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Kay McClenny!

• Declining by Degrees Higher Education at Risk
• PBS, 2005

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Spellings Commission

• Remarks by Secretary Spellings at the National
  Postsecondary Education Cooperative Symposium on
  Student Success in Washington, D.C., November
  2006
• You can find plenty of rankings and college
  guides, but you're out of luck if you want to
  find an answer to the question that matters most
  How much are students learning?
• Of course, we all know that education is not a
  one-size-fits-all enterprise. Success means
  different things to a 22-year-old full-time
  student than it does to a 45-year-old part-time
  student... and success for a trade school differs
  from success for a graduate program. Diversity
  and customization have always been among our
  system's greatest strengths, and we must preserve
  them. Not every aspect of the educational
  experience can be measured and compared. At the
  same time, we should certainly be able to ask
  institutions whether they're meeting their own
  unique goals.

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But there are MANY successful models

• Mesa Community College
• LaGuardia Community College
• Johnson County Community College
• Santa Fe Community College
• Valencia Community College
• Hillsborough Community College

these are just a few
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Who said it?

• Faculty are responsible for establishing goals
  for student learning, for designing and
  implementing programs of general education and
  specialized study that intentionally cultivate
  the intended learning, and for assessing
  students achievement.

• SACS Criteria for Accreditation
• U.S Department of Education
• AACU Statement on Academic Freedom

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AACU!

• Academic Freedom and Educational Responsibility
• A Statement of the Board of Directors of the
  Association of American Colleges and
  Universities, January 2006

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SACS Comprehensive Standard 3.4.10

• Faculty responsibility
• The institution places primary responsibility for
  the content, quality, and effectiveness of the
  curriculum with its faculty.

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SACS Comprehensive Standard 3.3.1

• Institutional Effectiveness
• The institution identifies expected outcomes for
  its educational programs (including student
  learning outcome for educational programs) and
  its administrative and educational support
  services assesses whether it achieves these
  outcomes and provides evidence of improvement
  based on analysis of those results.

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SACS Comprehensive Standard 3.5.1

• General Education Outcomes
• The institution identifies college-level
  competencies within the general education core
  and provides evidence that graduates have
  attained those competencies.

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What next?
Determine learning outcomes to be assessed
Review/improve process
Choose an assessment model - e.g.
curriculum-embedded assessment
Map outcomes to curriculum
Adapt/adopt/ develop rubrics
Implement rubrics, gather and compile results
Review/interpret results, recommend strategies to
improve student learning
Implement strategies
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What next?
Determine learning outcomes to be assessed
Review/improve process
Choose an assessment model - e.g.
curriculum-embedded assessment
Map outcomes to curriculum
Adapt/adopt/ develop rubrics
Implement rubrics, gather and compile results
Review/interpret results, recommend strategies to
improve student learning
Implement strategies
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FCCJ GER Outcomes

• http//www.fccj.edu/resources/catalogs/2006_2007/d
  egree_cert/aadegree.html

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21st Century Learning OutcomesLeague for
Innovation in the Community College

• Communication skills (reading, writing, speaking,
  listening)
• Computation skills (understanding and applying
  mathematical concepts and reasoning, analyzing
  and using numerical data)
• Community skills (citizenship, diversity/pluralism
  local, community, global, environmental
  awareness)
• Critical thinking and problem solving skills
  (analysis, synthesis, evaluation, decision
  making, creative thinking)
• Information management skills (collecting,
  analyzing, and organizing information from a
  variety of sources)
• Interpersonal skills (teamwork, relationship
  management, conflict resolution, workplace
  skills)
• Personal skills (ability to understand and manage
  self, management of change, learning to learn,
  personal responsibility, aesthetic
  responsiveness, wellness)
• Technology skills (computer literacy, Internet
  skills, retrieving and managing information via
  technology)

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State General Education Outcome Categories

• Communication (also ALC)
• Critical Thinking (also ALC)
• Scientific and Quantitative Reasoning
• Information Literacy
• Global Socio-cultural Responsibility

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Alignment of Outcomes

• How do these three overlap?
• FCCJ GER Knowledge Bases, Intellectual
  Competencies and Values
• 21st Century Learning Outcomes
• FCC State General Education Outcomes
• Will it impact what we assess?

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What next?
Determine learning outcomes to be assessed
Review/improve process
Choose an assessment model - e.g.
curriculum-embedded assessment
Map outcomes to curriculum
Adapt/adopt/ develop rubrics
Implement rubrics, gather and compile results
Review/interpret results, recommend strategies to
improve student learning
Implement strategies
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What next?
Determine learning outcomes to be assessed
Review/improve process
Choose an assessment model - e.g.
curriculum-embedded assessment
Map outcomes to curriculum
Adapt/adopt/ develop rubrics
Implement rubrics, gather and compile results
Review/interpret results, recommend strategies to
improve student learning
Implement strategies
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Some potential models

• Curriculum-embedded assessment (e.g. Johnson
  County CC)
• Pull individual student results from selected
  course assignments or final projects
• Pull student artifacts from selected courses,
  evaluate separately
• Summative Assessment (e.g. Mesa CC)
• Capstone (e.g. Hillsborough CC)
• E-Portfolios (e.g. LaGuardia CC)
• A combination of models can be used

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What next?
Determine learning outcomes to be assessed
Review/improve process
Choose an assessment model - e.g.
curriculum-embedded assessment
Map outcomes to curriculum
Adapt/adopt/ develop rubrics
Implement rubrics, gather and compile results
Review/interpret results, recommend strategies to
improve student learning
Implement strategies
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What next?
Determine learning outcomes to be assessed
Review/improve process
Choose an assessment model - e.g.
curriculum-embedded assessment
Map outcomes to curriculum
Adapt/adopt/ develop rubrics
Implement rubrics, gather and compile results
Review/interpret results, recommend strategies to
improve student learning
Implement strategies
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GER Outcomes Matrix

• Question Would this matrix enable us to identify
  existing opportunities for teaching and assessing
  each outcome in our GER curriculum?

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Match?
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What next?
Determine learning outcomes to be assessed
Review/improve process
Choose an assessment model - e.g.
curriculum-embedded assessment
Map outcomes to curriculum
Adapt/adopt/ develop rubrics
Implement rubrics, gather and compile results
Review/interpret results, recommend strategies to
improve student learning
Implement strategies
31
What next?
Determine learning outcomes to be assessed
Review/improve process
Choose an assessment model - e.g.
curriculum-embedded assessment
Map outcomes to curriculum
Adapt/adopt/ develop rubrics
Implement rubrics, gather and compile results
Review/interpret results, recommend strategies to
improve student learning
Implement strategies
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More choices

• How to gather results?
• Which courses and/or sections?
• Which faculty?
• How to involve adjuncts?
• How to manage/analyze/report data?

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More choices

• When to gather results?
• Each outcome every year, or rotate?
• Outcome priorities?
• At what point(s) in students program?

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More choices

• How to review and interpret results?
• Who is involved, how, and when?
• What kind of support is needed?
• How and to what detail are results reported?
• How will the results be used?
• When can we celebrate our accomplishments?
• When and how can we improve the process?

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AAHE Principles of Good Practice in Assessing
Student Learning

• The assessment of student learning begins with
  educational values.
• Assessment is most effective when it reflects an
  understanding of learning as multidimensional,
  integrated, and revealed in performance over time
• Assessment works best when the programs it seeks
  to improve have clear, explicitly stated
  purposes.
• Assessment requires attention to outcomes but
  also and equally to the experiences that lead to
  those outcomes.

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AAHE 2

• Assessment works best when it is ongoing, not
  episodic.
• Assessment fosters wider improvement when
  representatives from across the educational
  community are involved.
• Assessment makes a difference when it begins with
  issues of use and illuminates questions that
  people really care about.
• Assessment is most likely to lead to improvement
  when it is part of a larger set of conditions
  that promote change.
• Through assessment, educators meet
  responsibilities to students and to the public.

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Concept or Implementation?

• Collect data and then never use it
• Measure things that are easy to measure
• Do assessment because we have to

• Collaborate to make sense of what we observe
• Gather useful evidence of what we believe is
  important
• Do assessment because it helps us and students

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How to respond?

• I dont have time for one more thing
• Somehow, the results will be used against me
• Someone else is going to tell me how to teach

• Recognize that assessment is core to our practice
• Take control of the process
• Agree on what and how to assess - teaching is
  still up to the individual

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Opportunities

• AACU Institute on General Education
• FACC Commission on Institutional Effectiveness -
  Conference on Outcomes Assessment, May 10-11, St
  Augustine
• Brevard Community College - Workshop on General
  Education Outcomes Assessment, May 7-10

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Resources

• League for Innovation in the Community College,
  Learning Outcomes Project http//www.league.org/l
  eague/projects/pew/index.htm
• AACU, Assessment Resources http//www.aacu.org/i
  ssues/assessment/index.cfm
• NC State Univ, Online List of Assessment
  Resources http//www2.acs.ncsu.edu/UPA/assmt/reso
  urce.htm
• Florida Community Colleges, Learning Outcomes
  Page http//www.valenciacc.edu/slo/

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• EDS Airplane Analogy

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