Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Assessing and Improving Student Learning throughout Student Services Presenters from Sacramento City College: Kimberlee Beyrer, M.Ed. – Student Leadership and Development Coordinator Gwyneth Tracy, Ed.D. – DSP&S Coordinator & Counselor Richard Erlich, M.Ed. – Counselor/Transfer Center Director

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Presentation Overview 1.Three perspectives on assessing student learning in 3 different Student Service units 2.Aligning unit level SLOs to Student Services Program Learning Outcomes (ProLOs) 3.Aligning Program Learning Outcomes and General Education Learning Outcomes (GELOs) 4.Questions from Audience

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Student Leadership and Development History: - SLD did not evaluate or assess when I started in Fall I started small and kept it simple: I asked, “What does my department do?” - I clearly defined SLD’s mission and goals

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Relevant Questions Next I considered relevant questions: –Why do we need to assess our program? –What specifically needs to be assessed? Will the outcomes be useful and meaningful? –Who will be assessed and who will see the data? –When will all this happen? What will the timeline for data collection be and who will be responsible? –How will we assess and how will we analyze, report, and use the data?

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Taking Action Answering the relevant questions gave me direction as I began to take action: –Research and use of resources –Creation of tools –Implementation of first Leadership Assessments in Fall 2004 –Updated tools to reflect the Social Change Model of Leadership and began use last year Reference or base tools off of credible and supportive literature in your field

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Benefits All of these tools offer benefits: –Status check with your mission and goals –Clear link to division and college goals –Informs current and future practices –Evidence of credibility

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Leadership Assessments A hybrid-quantitative & qualitative measures: –Fall or pre-test: used to educate and empower learners and teachers, creating a more intentional educational process –Spring or post-test: used to determine the level of self-assessed improvement as a result of involvement in SLD programs and activities –Advisor assessment: the Advisor’s assessment of their students’ improvement over the past year as a result of involvement in SLD programs and activities –Outcomes report

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Student Learning Outcomes for Disability Services and Programs for Students (DSPS)

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Student Learning Outcome #1 At completion of meeting with a DSPS counselor, students will be able to self advocate for their accommodations on campus in classrooms and in counseling sessions.

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Quantitative measures: Instructor notification letters and Proctored testing usage If a student makes the effort to complete a Service Request to generate an instructor letter, we believe he/she is demonstrating self-advocacy and taking action to obtain necessary and appropriate accommodations which indicate also that he/she already met with a DRC counselor or LD specialist at some point to have the accommodations identified and approved.

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Instructor Notification Letters If a student makes the effort to come by and actually pick up the letters it is another step of self- advocacy which indicates their intention of using their accommodations. There are times a student may put in a service request for accommodations, but not follow through. At that point, they have stopped advocating for their needs and accommodations that would support them in academic success.

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Proctored Testing Use This indicates full self-advocacy. The student has applied for accommodations and picked up the letters and actually delivered the letters to instructors to receive these accommodations. Additionally they had to make appointments with the proctoring center, indicating a higher level of commitment to their success and self- advocacy.

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Qualitative Measures Survey students to find out why they did not pick up instructor letters and why they did not use approved proctored testing. Survey instructors to assess students ’ self advocacy when delivering instructor notification letters.

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Data Analysis Instructor LettersProctored Testing YearStudents Approved Students Used % Used % % YearStudent Request Letters Student Letters: No Pick-Up % Student Pick-Up % %

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Data Analysis (cont). Qualitative Analysis Themes Students did not pick up instructor letters: 1.Forgot 2.Confused about process 3.Chose not to use or dropped class Students did not use proctored testing: 1.Did not know they could 2.Felt did not need extra time Instructor interviews: Students self advocated, turned in letters, established rapport and/or discussed accommodations

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Conclusion and Next Step Increase number of Instructor Notification Letters picked up by Students Increase number of students who use their accommodation of proctored testing Implement evaluation of SLO # 2: Students will be able to assess current and potential job-related skills, plan for long-term career growth, and obtain comprehensive job-seeking strategies taking into consideration accommodations at work and self-advocacy skills at work.

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Transfer Center SLO#1: Build in their capacity for engaging in personal, academic, and career development. Academic planning was chosen to assess Start small and gain experience with assessment

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Assessing Student Learning in Academic Planning - Recognize, choose, and plan using General Education pattern for Associate Degree - Recognize, choose, and plan using Associate Degree majors - Recognize, choose, and plan using CSU General Education Breadth pattern and/or IGETC - Recognize, choose, and plan using Articulation agreements for majors found on ASSIST

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Insert Counselor Rubric

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Assessment Method, Results, & Conclusions Pre-Post Design N = 56 students Statistic – t test – comparison of means for pre/post measures Results significant at p<.000 Conclusion – Students were evaluated as demonstrating increased understanding of academic planning content

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Improvements One perspective is not enough Create a measure for students’ assessment of their learning pre/post Benefits - Would provide another perspective to compare with counselor’s - Can track counselor and students’ assessments over time both individually and aggregated

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Student Services Program Learning Outcomes (ProLOs) 7 Theme Areas Identified (See Handout) 19 learning outcomes – (See Handout) 3 year discussion across Student Services Adopted by Academic Senate - May 2008 Administrative support provided release time SLO Advisory Group – Subcommittee in Academic Senate Each Student Service Unit aligned their SLOs with Student Services Division ProLOs in Program Review

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 General Education Learning Outcomes (GELOs) GE Learning Outcome Development Process Steps in GELO “theme” development - College-wide workshops with Instruction, Student Services, & Student collaboration - Task group development of specific SLOs for each of 7 GELO “theme” areas

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 GELO Theme Areas Communication Quantitative Reasoning Depth & Breadth of Understanding Cultural Competency Information Competency Critical Thinking Life Skills and Personal Development

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Alignment of Student Services ProLOs and GELOs (See Handout) Institutional alignment of learning outcomes that facilitates mutual collaboration between Instruction and Student Services on meeting common learning outcomes Promotes creating and developing learning assessment methods that can be mutually shared between Instruction and Student Services on common learning outcomes

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Audience Questions

Strengthening Student Success Conference October 7 – 9, 2009 Contact Information Kimberlee Beyrer Gwyneth Tracy Richard Erlich