1. General Education Assessment: Getting Started GEAC Meeting SUNY Oneonta April 30, 2009

2. A (Mercifully) Brief History of Assessment – The National Context Undergraduate Reform Reports (1985-86) First National Assessment Conference (AAHE) in 1985 Heightened Regulatory Role of States Beginning in the mid-1980’s Development of Assessment (and Then Institutional Effectiveness Standards) by Regional Accreditors Beginning in the 1990’s Intermittent, then Sustained, Interest by Federal Overseers (e.g., Spellings)

3. SUNY Assessment History High Level of Assessment Activity Across SUNY from late 1970’s to early 1990’s SUNY Board of Trustees’ Credit Distribution Model for General Education (1998) Work of SUNY Provost’s Advisory Task Force on General Education (1999) ▫Delineation of student learning outcomes in Implementation Guidelines ▫SUNY-wide review of general education (GER)

4. Assessment Within SUNY (cont.) Formation of SUNY Provost’s Advisory Task Force on the Assessment of Student Learning Outcomes in Fall 1999 Completion of Final Report and Recommendations and Submission to University Provost in November 2000 GEAR Group Formed in January 2001 and Charged to Oversee Campus-Based General Education Assessment Trustees’ Resolution on SCBA in June 2004 and Subsequent Implementation by GEAR

5. What are the Goals of Assessment? Accountability to External Accrediting and Certification Agencies Accountability to SUNY System Administration Improving Teaching, Learning, and Academic Programs Assessment as Community-Building and Faculty Development

6. How Are SUNY Institutions Doing Assessment? Measures ▫Locally-developed ▫Course-embedded ▫Oversight Role Played by Departments or Committees (Either Campus-Wide or by “Silo”) Administrative Issues ▫Institutional Research/Administrator ▫Assessment Coordinator/Director ▫Campus Assessment Committee Closing the Loop ▫Department-/Discipline-based ▫By “Silo”

7. Summary of SCBA Database – Choice of Externally Referenced Measures Nationally-Normed SUNY Local Measures Rubrics Rubrics Critical Thinking21 32 4 Mathematics14 42 1 Writing 7 44 6