Title of Effective Practice: - California Postsecondary Education ...

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Description of the effective practice: Direct Connection to Policy Area 5 of The Illinois Commitment Teagle Consortium for Value-Added Assessment Augustana College A collaboration of six highly-selective Midwestern liberal arts colleges, the “Teagle Consortium” (so named in recognition of support received from the Teagle Foundation) is engaged in assessment of performance in core outcome areas such as writing, critical thinking, analytic reasoning and civic engagement. Involving Augustana, Alma College, Gustavus Adolphus College, Illinois Wesleyan University, Luther College and Wittenberg University, the project takes advantage of the differences in each school’s curriculum to measure which general education approaches lead to the best student gains. Analysis of varying outcomes measured by such generally-accepted tools as those available from the Higher Education Research Institute allows each school to not only improve the quality of its academic program, but further to hold students to higher expectations for learning and growth by using the assessments to target everhigher outcomes. Through this value-added assessment, the member institutions seek to discover what types of assessment best measure practices of colleges both within and beyond the consortium. Initial success of this three-year assessment initiative has already led the participating institutions to broaden the scope of their cooperation. The next areas likely to benefit from such partnership include international studies, public health, languages, area studies, sustainability and stewardship programs. Benefit would be derived in each instance from increased operational efficiencies and access to a wider pool of disciplinary resources. Another area for cooperation being explored deals with faculty development, including the sharing of best practices among faculty, and workshops for new faculty on the attributes and expected outcomes of a liberal arts education. Contact Information Name: Timothy Schermer Email: ccts@augustana.edu Phone: (309) 794-7450 178
Direct Connection to Policy Area 5 of The Illinois Commitment The Difference Between “OF” and “FOR”— Making Academic Assessment More Useful Robert Morris College What issue or need is addressed by the effective practice? Among Robert Morris College’s beliefs is that student learning and institutional effectiveness outcomes are uniquely and inextricably related to the extent that one sustains the other. While the institution has engaged in student learning assessment and institutional effectiveness evaluation for many years and has evidence of numerous effective initiatives, the College seeks to continuously enhance these processes. The most recent process enhancement objectives have been to: heighten stakeholder involvement; expand the assessment information’s utility; and implement recommendations from assessment results in a more demonstrable way into academic and institutional operations (i.e., higher visibility for “closing the loop”). Description of the effective practice: Robert Morris College’s process for assessment OF student learning is designed around program-level objectives for the general education core that is part of each applied associate and baccalaureate degree and the professional knowledge/skills of the respective major; the principal purposes it serves are curriculum change and improved pedagogy. Faculty establish student learning objectives and outcome statements, and the Dean from each division monitors the collection and reporting of each year’s assessment OF student learning results which become the subject for faculty meeting and curriculum committee discussions and recommendations. This model places emphasis on direct measures OF student learning at the group level, primarily through random sampling of student work within each academic division. It also considers indirect measures OF student learning used by RMC, such as the ACT Student Opinion Survey, NSSE, ACT Alumni Survey, Employer Survey, Program Advisory Committee input, and persistence data. RMC’s latest process addition, assessment FOR student learning, was consciously developed to respond to the three enhancement objectives mentioned above while complementing the existing model and increasing assessment capacity. The Student Competency-Based Credentialing System results in a credential transcript for each student and constitutes assessment FOR student learning by providing an additional “feedback loop” to individual students and faculty. The credential transcript is a tool that students can use immediately, throughout their program of study, and after graduation in their careers for professional and personal development. The competency-based assessment is predicated on ten general competencies to be achieved by all students; each competency can be developed through a variety of courses or experiences, and collectively they represent skills generally sought by employers: 1) Collaboration, 2) Oral Communication, 3) Written Communication, 4) Creative Thinking, 5) Critical Thinking, 6) Cultural Awareness, 7) Leadership, 8) Managing Information, 9) Quantitative Evaluation, 10) Experiential Learning. Each competency in the assessment FOR student learning model carries an academic outcome and a corporate definition; this combination highlights the applied, career-focused nature of the College’s mission relative to the institution’s programs of study. There are three progressive levels of achievement with delineated rubrics that complete the model: Level 1— Acquisition; Level 2—Application; Level 3—Integration. Any of five identified assessment strategies can demonstrate mastery of a competency: Course-based (courses in the curriculum have been matched to the competencies and levels of achievement based on equivalency with course objectives, thus course grades can be used to distinguish between levels); Internship (the evaluation form completed by the internship on-site supervisor aligns to the competencies and levels); Portfolio (this tool is especially useful for those competencies that do not lend themselves well to the other identified strategies; Testing (scores on post-tests/comprehensive final exams and/or subset scores from these determine the mastery level and competency); Work Experience (students describe their work experience in a formal paper that is evaluated relative to the competencies and levels by a faculty committee). What are the results/measurable outcomes? The combined model, Assessment OF and FOR Student Learning, has several strategic and organizational benefits and outcomes. RMC implemented the Student Competency-Based Credentialing System to engage students actively in their learning assessment throughout their program of study; to provide them a useful, personalized tool for advancing their personal and professional development; and to make available documentation – the credential transcript – that can supplement the academic transcript. At the same time, the combined student learning assessment model supports RMC’s “culture of evidence” wherein institutional policy, practice, and planning are informed by the regular collection, compilation, and analysis of data. Data availability from the direct and indirect assessment measures about student learning along with additional productivity measures used in the evaluation of institutional effectiveness produces an information-rich, systematic basis for effecting positive change. Contact Information Name: Mablene Krueger Email: mkrueger@robertmorris.edu Phone: (312) 935-6645 179
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