A is for Assessment: The Other Scarlet Letter

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A is for Assessment The Other Scarlet Letter

• Diane F. Halpern
• Minerva Schools at the Keck Graduate Institute

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Which of the following images comes to mind when
you hear the term assessment?

• Bubble-in scantron forms that are damp and smeary
  from sweat and erasures
• Tall stacks of essay questions waiting for you to
  grade and grade and grade
• The specter of a bad grade
• Anxious students writing furiously before time
  is up
• All of the above except c or none of the above
• Just shoot me now and get this over with

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How U. S. News and World Report Assesses Quality

• College administrators
• Retention rates
• Faculty resources (including salaries)
• Selectivity (SAT scores)
• Financial resources
• Alumni giving
• Graduation rate

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Student outcomes assessment refers to a wide
range of activities that involve gathering and
examining data for the purpose of improving
teaching and learning.
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Without tests, we flunk
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General Guidelines for Good Practice

• 1. The purpose of student outcomes assessment is
  to improve teaching and learning. Therefore, one
  feature of a good outcomes assessment program is
  that it is student-centered.
• 2. There is no single indicator of educational
  effectiveness.
• 3. Successful programs are owned by faculty.

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General Guidelines for Good Practice (continued)

• 4. The expertise and hard work involved in
  conducting a quality assessment of educational
  objectives must be recognized and rewarded in a
  manner that is comparable to other professional
  activities.
• 5. Outcomes assessment creates natural links with
  other segments of higher education

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General Guidelines for Good Practice (continued)

• 6. No program can succeed unless care is taken to
  ensure that data are not misused.
• 7. The greatest strength of American higher
  education is its diversity. Outcomes assessment
  will depend on the nature of the curriculum and
  the faculty who design and teach the curriculum.

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Assess Student Outcomes Make
data-based recommendations Reform
curriculum or make other changes
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What Should We Expect a Graduate from Your
Program to Know and Be Able to Do? (What is
learned and developed in in your program) A
Sampler of Possible Outcomes

• Content knowledge of your discipline (e.g., major
  theories, works, etc.)
• Understand the methods of your discipline
• Language and literacy skills
• Thinking skills
• Information gathering and synthesis

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What Should We Expect a Graduate from Your
Program to Know and Be Able to Do? (What is
learned and developed in in your program) A
Sampler of Possible Outcomes

• Appreciation for the arts
• Skills gained through practical experience
• Ethics and values
• Interpersonal Skills

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SOME WAYS OF ASSESSING GOALS

• Off The Shelf normed instruments
• Locally written comprehensive exams
• Capstone coursework and other culminating
  experiences
• Available data (freshmen-senior comparisons,
  retention data, course-taking patterns)
• Nonintrusive measures
• Student, alumni, employer surveys
• Nontraditional qualitative measures (portfolios,
  interviews, external examiners, performance
  assessments)

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New Ways of Teaching Call for New Ways of
Assessing

• Technology-Mediated Learning

• Technology-Mediated Assessment

• Massive Open On-line Courses (see you in
  class!)
• \ Serious Learning Games
• Flipped Classrooms
• Skyping in Class with Other Professors

• Essays Graded by Computers
• Oral Segments Abstracted from Class Participation
  for Grading
• Peer Assessment
• Demonstrations of Thinking Skills

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Outcomes Assessment is not one more thingits
the only thing. Its the only way of knowing if
your students are learning what you think youre
teaching, and it tells you what to change if
theyre not.
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