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CRITERION FOUR: TEACHING AND LEARNING: EVALUATION AND IMPROVEMENT BUTLER UNIVERSITY SELF-STUDY REPORT mean) and with students indicating they only participate in a community-based project as part of a regular course “sometimes.” See the following for details: Mapping Departmental SLOs, Summary of Alignment of Departmental SLOs and USLOs Over Time; Butler University SLOs Matched to NSSE Results; Butler University SLOs Matched to NSSE with Select Data Charts; and NSSE Items as aligned with USLOs. That said, Butler’s commitment to community engagement in our strategic plans and University SLOs is beginning to make a mark on student learning. Since 2004, first-year student mean responses in NSSE on the two SLO 11-related items mentioned above have improved by 21 percent and 13 percent respectively, and senior year student mean responses have increased by 12 percent and 17 percent respectively, in these indices. As the Indianapolis Community Requirement (ICR), a distinctive part of Butler’s Core Curriculum, becomes fully implemented, it should drive innovation in course development and more student enrollment in courses with this focus. Preliminary assessment of the student impact of ICR courses (fall 2011) is encouraging. The 107 students enrolled in ICR who completed “post-then” surveys about their involvement in and attitudes about community service reported significant increases in several categories of civic knowledge and awareness, including greater willingness to help address community issues, increased confidence in applying knowledge to real-world problems, and ease in envisioning future participation in initiatives that improve the community. (See Assessment of Indianapolis Community Requirement; ICR Post-Then Survey Reports; and Assessment Data for SLO 1, 2, and 3 of ICR 2012.) Area of special challenge: diversity. Two SLOs are relevant here: helping students “to explore a variety of cultures” (SLO 4) and “to appreciate diverse cultures, ethnicities, religions, and sexual orientations” (SLO 10). In the Wabash National Study, Butler students reported exposure to course-related diversity experiences at levels below all other comparison groups, with this institutional difference widening from first-year comparisons to senior-year comparisons. None of our first-year students reported high levels of exposure to this high-impact practice and only five percent of our seniors did. Our 2011 NSSE scores for institutional contribution to students “understanding people of other racial and ethnic backgrounds” also fell below our aspirations (2.61 and 2.44 means for first-years and seniors, respectively). (See Butler University SLOs Matched to NSSE Results; Butler University SLOs Matched to NSSE with Select Data Charts; NSSE Items as aligned with USLOs; Butler WNS Four-Year Outcome Change Graphs; Butler WNS Four-Year Outcomes Change Variability; Diversity Experiences I and II 2007; and Diversity Experiences I and II 2010.) Achievement of diversity-related learning outcomes depends not only on curricular design but also on Butler’s strategic initiatives, educational climate, and ethnographic and demographic make-up. And this is an area in which Butler has struggled. While “Diversity Experiences” were recorded as disappointingly low for all participating institutions compared to performance on the other Wabash National Study key liberal arts learning “good practices” clusters, Butler’s showing was the poorest. Both Butler’s first-year students and senior students reported notably lower levels of participation in “meaningful interactions with diverse peers,” indices where students indicated frequency of such experiences as serious discussions with students of different religious beliefs, political opinions, or personal values, with students from different economic, social, racial, or ethnic backgrounds, or involving social justice issues. With respect to the “Openness to Diversity/Challenge,” fewer than one-third of Butler students exhibited moderate to high growth and 62 percent exhibited no growth or decline in this liberal arts 140
CRITERION FOUR: TEACHING AND LEARNING: EVALUATION AND IMPROVEMENT BUTLER UNIVERSITY SELF-STUDY REPORT outcome, according to the Wabash longitudinal data. More recently, the 2011 NSSE (linked to our SLO 10) confirms the Wabash National Study trends, with very modest rates of improvement and only in narrow indicators. Butler’s overall results on liberal arts outcomes were typical of what occurred among Wabash National Study institutions generally: students grew on some of the outcomes measured, and showed no growth or declining impact on others, with broad similarity in areas of institutional strength and weakness. Blaich and Wise (2011) of the Wabash National Study reported that faculty, staff, and administrators at many of the participating institutions were surprised by their results, while being optimistic when seeing concrete evidence of the good educational practices that played a role in their students’ learning outcomes. The researchers recommended that institutions address their concerns about students’ growth by responding to specific evidence about the strengths and weaknesses of their teaching and learning environments. When examining Butler’s performance, it is important to recall the period of the Wabash National Study (fall 2006 through spring 2010), and how Butler has been changing. University SLOs explicitly began guiding curricular design around 2007; most elements of the new Core Curriculum were introduced in fall 2010. The First Year Seminar, now required for all first-year students, provides an intimate setting with high expectations focused on critical reading, reflection, and interrelated themes of self and society. The Butler Cultural Requirement—“Eight before you graduate!”—fosters participation at lectures, artistic, and cultural events, many cross-cultural in content. The Global and Historical Studies two-semester course requirement supports sustained exposure to and reflection on cultural differences. The Indianapolis Community Requirement (ICR) is early in its implementation. Taken together, the University expects that Butler’s student learning gains and outcomes on national surveys will begin to be positively affected by these curricular innovations, and indeed, in some areas, there is positive movement in data trends. (See Wabash Study Executive Summary.) The learning outcome cluster denoted “Universality-Diversity Awareness” in the Wabash National Study longitudinal analysis has 46 percent of Butler students exhibiting moderate or high growth (2006–2010) in this area compared with a rate of 42 percent for students in all other institutions participating. Similarly, the trajectory of change (2004 v. 2011) in this NSSE indicator has also been positive, both for Butler seniors (four percent improvement) and especially for our first-year students (12 percent improvement). In the early assessment of the impact of ICR courses, students report a significant increase in their “civic skills” with respect to interactions with diverse individuals in a work setting, attitudes toward cultural and ethnic diversity, and ability to respond with empathy to others, regardless of background because these courses have students engaging with a more diverse community. (See Assessment of Indianapolis Community Requirement; ICR Post-Then Survey Report Old and New Factors; and Assessment data for SLO 1, 2, and 3 of ICR 2012.) The campus also appears energized to move forward in assisting students in achieving essential “diversity” learning outcomes. The comprehensive faculty development program has sponsored on-campus discussion, reading groups, pedagogy workshops, and study trips focused on multicultural pedagogy in each of the past four years. Butler’s partnership with the Indianapolis Public Schools and the Early College Program (instituted AY 2011–2012) is creating additional service learning opportunities in a diverse, urban high school and bringing two dozen students from this partner school into our classrooms each semester. The Offices of Advancement and Admission are focused on stabilizing the 141
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TABLE OF CONTENTS BUTLER UNIVERSITY
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INTRODUCTION BUTLER UNIVERSITY SELF
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CRITERION ONE: MISSION BUTLER UNIVE
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CRITERION TWO: ETHICAL AND RESPONSI
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CRITERION THREE: TEACHING AND LEARN
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Page 92 and 93: CRITERION THREE: TEACHING AND LEARN
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CRITERION FIVE: RESOURCES, PLANNING
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