Making Assessment Count: How to Develop a Useful and Practical Assessment Effort 2012 MSACROA 82st Annual Conference and Meeting Gladys Palma de Schrynemakers Long Island University

Part I: The Context of Assessment Part II: How to Create A Useful and Meaningful Assessment Effort Double Session

Climate of Assessment

 1980’s : The Gathering Storm: Robert Zemsky and William Massy – Academic Ratchet and Lattice Change Magazine The Context for Assessment

“ The trouble with higher education is it remains a labor-intensive service interest industry made up of stubbornly independent and mutually jealous units that support vastly underused facilities. It is a more than 200 billion-a-year economic enterprise, and often regard efficiency, productivity, and commercial opportunity with hauteur with which Victorian aristocrats viewed those in trade.” (U.S. News and World Report, 1996, 91) 1996: U.S. News and World Report

 Higher Education Act 1998: Establishes a National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education “ Academic institutions need much better definitions and measures of how faculty members, administrators, and students use their time.” ( National Commission on the Cost of Higher Education, 1998, 20) The Federal Government Chimes In

 Academic institutions to control costs and increase productivity.  Provide leadership that will develop better consumer information about costs and prices and to improve accountability to the public.  Governments will develop new approaches to academic regulation, approaches that emphasize performance instead of compliance, and differentiation in place of standardization.  Develop well-coordinated, efficient accrediting process that relate institutional productivity to effectiveness in improving student learning.( National Commission on the Cost of Higher Ed., 1998, ) Four Recommendations

“ We believe [in] improved accountability...information should be available to students, and reported publicly in aggregate form to provide consumers and policymakers an accessible, understandable way to measure the relative effectiveness of different colleges and universities. (Spelling Commission, 2006, 4) A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of Higher Education Spelling Report 2006

The assessment movement led all six regional accrediting bodies to requiring institutions to provide evidence of 1.Assessment of Student Learning 2.Assessment of Institutional Effectiveness 3.Systematic Strategic Planning Then what?

Consumer Education Information Provided to Institutions HEA Sec. 433A Guaranty agencies must provide schools with high-quality educational programs and materials to provide training for students and families in o Budgeting o Financial management o Debt management o Financial literacy Materials shall be simple and understandable to students and families Provided before, during and after enrollment in higher education Guaranty agencies may use existing activities, programs and materials to meet these requirements Guaranty agencies may provide these materials to Direct Lending Schools Higher Education Opportunity Act

Assessment is any effort to gather, analyze, and interpret evidence which describes institutional, divisional or agency effectiveness. Upcraft & Schuh, 1996 So What is Assessment Anyway?

 Provides us with data about student learning and/or program improvement  Provides evidence of institutional effectiveness  Allows decisions to be evidence based  Provides us with information for resource allocation  Offers evidence for accountability, accreditation, and best practices Why Assess in Student Services?

Why do we have to do this? Where do I start? We collect so much data, I don’t want to reinvent the wheel!!!!!!! How do I organize it all???!!! What is assessment anyway?

Why Do Assessment? Federal and State Requirements Meet Accreditation Standards External Factors Strategic Planning Budget Planning Institutional Effectiveness Internal Factors Improve student learning and engagement Important Factors

Student Learning and Engagement

“…an institution can increase the likelihood that students will experience college as a seamless web of learning across classroom and out-of-class settings by linking programs and activities across the academic and out-of-class dimensions of students' lives and removing obstacles to students' pursuit of their academic and personal goals. ” Student Learning Outside the Classroom: Transcending Artificial Boundaries by George D. Kuh, Katie Branch Douglas, Jon P. Lund, and Jackie Ramin-Gyurnek.

Ask a Question Determine best way to collect information Collect the information Analyze the information Make changes based on the analysis of information What is Assessment?

George Washington University, Assessment Tool Kit

Where do I Start? Who are you? Your Office Mission The mission of the Office of the University Registrar is: to support the academic mission and purpose of the University; to provide information and academic services to the University community in an efficient, user-friendly manner while ensuring accuracy, integrity, and confidentiality of academic records; to provide exemplary service by continually improving our business processes for registration, scheduling, academic records, degree audit, and related functions; to effectively communicate procedures and responsibilities for the successful use of our services; and to adhere to policies and model the highest standards of the registrar profession. Ohio University

The Office of the Registrar for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences is dedicated to providing the best possible services to meet the needs of the Harvard College and Graduate School communities. The office is the steward of student records from the point of matriculation to the conferral of the degree. It offers a wide range of services to faculty, students, and members of the administration in the areas of academic records, student status, registration, course enrollment, publications, classroom assignments, and administration of final examinations. The office supports teaching and learning within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences by administering the various academic policies of the College and the Graduate School. Harvard University

Goals are a framework for determining the more specific objectives of a department, and should be consistent with the mission of the department and the mission of the institution. Sample Admission Goals  Provide accurate and useful information to perspective students.  Enroll admitted students and help them transition into the University Goals

Objectives are brief, clear statements that describe the desired learning outcomes. Goal 1: Provide accurate and useful information to prospective students. Objectives: 1.1 Send written correspondence to student explaining each step of the admissions process 1.2 Counselors will respond to applicants via phone, , personal contact to reinforce admissions process Objectives

Measures are the ways to assess student learning Direct Measures: Direct measures of assessment require students to represent, produce or demonstrate their learning. Indirect Measures: Indirect measures of assessment represent students’ impressions or opinions about their learning. Measure

Analyze data Direct Measure Now What? OutreachNumber of Successful Attempts Percentage of Conversion Telephone Calls s Personal Contacts

Indirect Measure Survey of converted students

CH-CHANGE!!!

Time to Play!

 Think about your institutional mission/culture  Think about your department and how it fits into that culture Write down one or two goals that would connect to those two thinking points. STEP ONE

 Find five people and sit together!  Share your 1 goal  Help each other develop one objective and one direct measure for that goal STEP TWO

Share!! One person from each group report on group work STEP Three

Be S.M.A.R.T. about Assessment Specific/Simple Measurable/ Meaningful Attainable Result Oriented Timely Final Note

Resources Middle States Commission on Higher. Characteristics of Excellence in Higher Education. Education. PA Higher Education Opportunity Act was approved by the Senate and House of Representatives on July 31, The President signed the bill into law on August 14, Kuh, G.,K. Branch Douglas, J. P. Lund, and J. Ramin-Gyurnek. Student Learning Outside the Classroom: Transcending Artificial Boundaries(1995). Jossey-Bass. CA. Middaugh, M.F. (2010) Planning and Assessment in Higher Education Jossey-Bass. CA. Spellings Commission. A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of Higher Education. The Report of the Secretary’s Commission on the Future of Higher Education, U.S. News and World Rankings Best Colleges 1996 Zemsky, R., and W. Massy. “ Cost Containment: Committing to a New Economic Reality.” Change 22, no. 6 (1990): 16-22