Academic Leadership Institute

1. Academic Leadership Institute March 15, 2018 Leading Assessment & Accreditation Dr. Mimi Steadman, Vice President Academic Affairs, D’Youville College Dr. Kate Schiefen, Provost and Executive Vice President, Genesee Community College

2. Session Overview 1. Assessment 101 Student Learning Administrative Unit Assessment Institutional Effectiveness 2. The Current Context 3. Accreditation It’s all about assessment Analysis and evidence, not description Meeting the Changing Processes & Standards of Middle States 4. Leadership & Assessment Using the Switch principles

3. Learning ObjectivesALI participants will be able to: Define assessment of student learning and institutional assessment, and provide examples of both. Describe alignment of mission, strategic planning, assessment and resource allocation, and how to provide evidence for Middle States. Access resources on assessment and accreditation. Apply the Switch principles to leadership for assessment.

4. What is assessment? Assessment is simply looking at what one does and how well one is doing it. Peggy S. Lowry, Director, Office of Sponsored Programs and Research Compliance, Oregon State University

5. Why assess? Use what we learn about how well we’re doing to adjust our approach as needed, celebrate what’s working, and to plan and allocate resources accordingly.

6. What is assessment of student learning? Deciding what we want our students to learn. Making sure they learned it. Jane Wolfson, Director, Environmental Science & Studies Program, Towson University

7. A Focused Five Step (“Just do it”) Assessment Process for Academic Programs 1. Articulate learning objectives -As a result of this program/course, students should be able to… [Offer instruction or other learning experiences] 2. Collect information/evidence -Using direct and indirect methods 3. Review/analyze data and reflect on findings 4. Report results 5. Use information for decision making and improvement Repeat!

8. Curriculum Maps:Aligning instruction with objectives

9. Learning Goal Alignment Map

10. Assessment is not necessarily quantitative. Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. Albert Einstein

11. Assessment Methods: Student Learning Direct Indirect Surveys Course evaluations Focus groups Program progression, credits earned Grades # hours spent on course or cultural activities or service learning, etc. Course-embedded: Tests, quizzes, papers, thesis, capstone products, performances, and projects Certification/licensure exams Field experience or clinical preceptor evaluations Standardized exams (CLA, ETS Proficiency Profile) Portfolios Rubrics

12. What’s the point? The aim of assessment is primarily to educate and improve student performance, not merely to audit it. Grant Wiggins (1998). Educative Assessment, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, p. 7.

13. Advice from ground level Aim for an assessment process that is scholarly and professionally engaging, rather than tedious and time consuming. Keep your plans lean, focused, and useful so that the assessment process is sustainable and supports, rather than detracts from, the work that matters most.

14. Moving out from the classroom to the institution as a whole….

15. What is Institutional Assessment? Articulating our program, unit and institutional level goals, aligning them with the mission and strategic plan, then determining whether we met them.

16. Alignment of Mission, Planning, Assessment & Resources • Assessment of environment Assessment

19. Assessment Methods: Institutional Assessment Direct Indirect Grad school placement rates Job placement rates/surveys Progress toward degree/upper division Retention and graduation rates Homegrown or commercial surveys (NSSE, Noel Levitz, CIRP, etc.) Transcript analysis Ratings of capstone projects, performances, thesis papers Pass rates on licensure exams Rubric scores on artifacts related to general ed outcomes Scores on national tests (CLA, ETS Proficiency Profile, Critical Thinking)

20. Current Context for Assessment and Accreditation

23. Regional Accreditation • Is a peer review process. • Is guided by a set of standards. • Is not prescriptive. It provides guidelines, but does not provide forms or templates nor require specific methods or measures. • It respects and values the heterogeneity of American institutions of higher education.

24. Middle States Processes have Changed • From 14 to 7 Standards of Excellence • Annual Institutional Profile reports • Mid-Point Reviews:  Off-site peer evaluators • Re-accreditation Site Visits:  Every 8 years with an off-site document review preceding the visit

25. Self Studies must now address: • Institutional responses to opportunities for institutional improvement identified in previous self-study • Institutional priorities related to the 7 MSCHE Standards • Cumulative results of periodic assessments for all standards • Important current opportunities for improvements that the institution intends to pursue prior to the next site-visit

26. New Standard 5: Educational Effectiveness Assessment “Assessment of student learning and achievement demonstrates that the institution’s students have accomplished educational goals consistent with their program of study, degree level, the institution’s mission and appropriate expectations for institutions of higher education.”

27. New Standard 6: Planning, Resources, and Institutional Improvement “The institution’s planning processes, resources, and structures are aligned with each other and are sufficient to fulfill its mission and goals, to continuously assess and improve its programs and services and to respond effectively to opportunities and challenges.”

29. Producing “Evidence” of Assessing Institutional Effectiveness at GCC 1. Department, divisional, unit goals established each year (informed by Program and Administrative Unit Assessment Activities and tied to Strategic Priorities.) • Departments, divisions, units, report progress towards goals updated tri-annually. • IR monitors established Strategic Priority measures. (i.e. student retention rates)

30. How should we go about assessment? Assessment should be focused on answering questions, not on collecting data. David Oehler, Director of Assessment, Information & Analysis, Northwest Missouri State University

31. Leadership & Assessment

32. Leadership and Assessment • Assessment and the evocation of feelings. …the core of the matter is always about changing the behavior of people, and behavior change happens in highly successful situations mostly by speaking to people’s feelings. This is true even in organizations that are very focused on quantitative measurement, even among people who think of themselves as smart in the MBA sense. (Kotter and Cohen in Switch, 2010, p. 105)

33. Leadership and Assessment • What are some of the emotions faculty express about assessment? OR, In other words, no matter what the rider has in mind, what are the challenges with the “elephant” around assessment?

34. Leadership and Assessment • Inventory of the current condition at your college: • Taking a close look at the riders, elephants, and pathways in assessment at your college-

35. Do the riders know the destination? • Destinations are different for various stakeholders: • Most faculty - Closely relate with/to course level destinations (CSLO’s). • Program faculty- Often relate to program learning destinations (PSLO’s). • Liberal Arts faculty – Often relate to general-education destinations (GSLO’s). • It is often more difficult to get to the institutional level destinations (ISLO’s) and the path is often too long and complicated to keep the elephant motivated.

36. Are the elephants motivated? • Compliance versus collective quality. • More work- or more important work? • Is the work meaningful? • Short paths (a relay race) versus a long path (marathon race). • Are the elephants fed and watered along the way?

37. Is the path clear? • Riders and Elephants do not walk around aimlessly forever! • Riders need to know where they are going. Elephants need good riders and emotional support when they wander off track. • When the path is cleared, posted with directional signs, and well lite, the likelihood that the riders and elephants will make it to the destination are great. • Everybody is critical- the elephants, the riders, and the path managers.

38. How and where to begin as a leader? • What comes first? Finding riders, motivating elephants, or clearing the path? Many change management theorists might suggest an emotional trigger may be necessary. • Traveling your portion of the path (if you are not the main rider). Leadership happens at all levels of the institution and in all departments around assessment.

39. Leadership and Assessment Use what you learn here and through Switch to: • Inventory the current climate around assessment. • What is your role and yes- you have a role! • Framed in the context of your college’s mission, think about what would motivate your college (elephants) to embrace collective assessment to reach your destination?

40. To learn more…

41. Low cost, regional professional development and networking opportunity on assessment.

42. Major national conference on assessment with sessions geared to all levels of experience.

43. Online Resources National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) American Association of Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) VALUE Rubrics College Scorecard SUNY Assessment Resources Council for the Advance of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) College Navigator Consumer Info Tool using IPEDS data