Assessing for Learning: Building a Sustainable Commitment Across the Institution

by Maki, Peggy

• ISBN13: 9781579220884
• ISBN10: 1579220886
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-06-01
• Publisher: Stylus Pub Llc

Summary

This book offers colleges and universities a framework and tools to design an effective and collaborative assessment process appropriate for their culture and institution. It encapsulates the approach that Peggy Maki has refined through hundreds of successful workshops. She presents extensive examples of processes, strategies and campus practices, as well as key resources, guides, worksheets, and exercises -- to assist all stakeholders in the institution to develop and sustain assessment of student learning as an integral and systematic core institutional process. This book sets the assessment of learning within the twin contexts of: (1) the level of a program, department, division, or school within an institution; and (2) the level of an institution, based on its mission statement, educational philosophy, and educational objectives. Each chapter explores ways to position assessment within program- and institutional-level processes, decisions, structures, practices, and channels of communication. Here is a process that any campus can adapt and use to engage all its constituencies -- institutional leaders, faculty, staff, administrators, students and those in governance -- constructively to forge a vision and commitment to action.

Author Biography

Peggy L. Maki is a higher education consultant

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xiii
Preface	xvii
Developing a Collective Institutional Commitment	1	(30)
Overview	1	(1)
A Culture of Inquiry	1	(2)
Dialogue about Teaching and Learning across the Institution	3	(1)
Anatomy of the Collaborative Process	3	(3)
A Shared Commitment: Roles and Responsibilities	6	(2)
Presidents, Chancellors, and System Heads	6	(1)
Boards of Trustees	6	(1)
Campus Leaders	7	(1)
Faculty, Administrators, Staff, and Other Contributors to Student Learning, Including Students	7	(1)
A Collaborative Beginning: Principles of Commitment	8	(1)
Anchors for Developing Institutional Principles of Commitment	8	(5)
The Science of Learning	8	(1)
The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning	8	(1)
Disciplinary and Professional Organizations' Focus on Student Learning	9	(1)
Institutional Focus on Learning-Centeredness	10	(1)
Institutional Focus on Organizational Learning	11	(1)
Accountability	12	(1)
Meaningful Beginnings	13	(1)
Box 1. Institutional Example: University of Portland	14	(1)
Higher Education's Ownership	14	(1)
Works Cited	15	(1)
Additional Resources	16	(6)
Worksheets, Guides, and Exercises	22	(5)
Box 1.2 Institutional Example: North Carolina State University	27	(1)
Box 1.3 Institutional Example: Rochester Community and Technical College	27	(4)
Beginning with Dialogue about Teaching and Learning	31	(28)
Overview	31	(1)
The Continuum of Learning: Beyond an Aggregation of Courses, Credits, and Seat Time	31	(1)
A Focus on Integration	32	(1)
Coordinating Committees	33	(2)
A Campus-Wide Assessment Committee	33	(1)
Program-Level Assessment Committees	34	(1)
Dialogue Focused on Expectations for Student Learning	35	(1)
Dialogue Focused on Verifying Expectations	36	(1)
Maps and Inventories	37	(1)
Maps	37	(1)
Box 2.1 Institutional Example: New Jersey City University	38	(1)
Box 2.2 Institutional Example: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology	38	(1)
Inventories	38	(1)
Figure 2.3 Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Curriculum Map	39	(1)
The Design of Our Work	40	(1)
Works Cited	40	(1)
Additional Resources	41	(3)
Worksheets, Guides, and Exercises	44	(8)
Appendix 2.1 Business Administration Program's Curriculum Map	52	(7)
Making Claims about Student Learning Within Contexts for Learning	59	(26)
Overview	59	(1)
Learning Outcome Statements	60	(1)
Characteristics of Institution- and Program-Level Learning Outcome Statements	60	(1)
Box 3.1 Institutional Example: California State University Monterey Bay	60	(1)
The Difference between Program or Institutional Objectives and Learning Outcomes or Learning Objectives	61	(1)
Box 3.2 Institutional Example: University of Washington	61	(1)
Levels of Learning Outcome Statements	62	(1)
Taxonomies	63	(1)
Collaboration to Develop and Review Outcome Statements	63	(1)
Strategies for Developing Outcome Statements	64	(1)
Strategy 1: Mission Statements	64	(1)
Strategy 2: Professional Organizations	64	(1)
Box 3.3 Institutional Example: Stonehill College	64	(3)
Strategy 3: Student Work	65	(1)
Strategy 4: An Epistemological and Ethnographic Process	66	(1)
Strategy 5: Deep and Surface Approaches to Learning	67	(1)
Community Consensus about Learning Outcome Statements	67	(1)
Situating Students to Take Responsibility	68	(1)
Works Cited	68	(1)
Additional Resources	69	(2)
Worksheets, Guides, and Exercises	71	(6)
Appendix 3.1 Institutional Example: University of Washington	77	(2)
Appendix 3.2 Institutional Example: North Carolina State University	79	(2)
Appendix 3.3 Example of Leveled Outcome Statements	81	(4)
Identifying or Designing Tasks to Assess the Dimensions of Learning	85	(34)
Overview	85	(1)
The Range of Texts that Demonstrate or Represent Learning	85	(1)
Multiple Methods of Assessment	86	(1)
Box 4.1 Institutional Example: Stanford University, California	87	(1)
Box 4.2 Institutional Example: University of Michigan	88	(1)
Box 4.3 Institutional Example: North Carolina State University	88	(1)
Direct and Indirect Methods of Assessment	88	(1)
Methods along the Continuum of Learning: Formative and Summative	89	(1)
Box 4.4 Institutional Example: Alverno College	89	(1)
Positions of Inquiry	90	(1)
Issues of Alignment: Outcomes, Inferences, and Students' Learning Histories	90	(1)
Box 4.5 Institutional Example: Marian College	91	(1)
Box 4.6 Institutional Example: Keystone College	91	(1)
Properties of a Method: Validity and Reliability	92	(3)
Validity	93	(1)
Reliability	93	(1)
Standardized Tests	93	(1)
Designed Methods	94	(1)
Box 4.7 Institutional Example: Alverno College	95	(2)
Works Cited	97	(1)
Additional Resources	98	(6)
Worksheets, Guides, and Exercises	104	(4)
Box 4.8 Institutional Example: Academic Librarians and Faculty	108	(2)
Box 4.9 Institutional Example: Student Affairs and Academic Affairs	110	(3)
Appendix 4.1 Strategies for Reviewing and Selecting Standardized Instruments	113	(1)
Appendix 4.2 Inventory of Direct and Indirect Assessment Methods	114	(5)
Reaching Consensus about Criteria and Standards of Judgment	119	(34)
Overview	119	(1)
Interpretations of Student Achievement	120	(1)
Norm Referencing	120	(1)
Criterion Referencing	120	(1)
Scoring Rubrics	121	(1)
Box 5.1 Institutional Example: Azusa Pacific University	122	(2)
Analytic and Holistic Rubrics	123	(1)
Strategies to Develop Scoring Rubrics	124	(1)
Box 5.2 Institutional Example: North Carolina State University	125	(1)
Development of Scoring Rubrics	125	(1)
Strategies to Assure Interrater Reliability	126	(1)
Threaded Opportunities for Institutional and Student Learning	127	(1)
Works Cited	128	(1)
Additional Resources	128	(1)
Worksheets, Guides, and Exercises	129	(6)
Appendix 5.1 Institutional Example: New Jersey City University	135	(3)
Appendix 5.2 Institutional Example: New Jersey City University	138	(6)
Appendix 5.3 Institutional Example: Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design	144	(3)
Appendix 5.4 Institutional Example: Hampden-Sydney College, Department of Psychology	147	(6)
Designing A Cycle of Inquiry	153	(18)
Overview	153	(1)
A Design for Institutional Learning	153	(1)
Methods of Sampling	154	(1)
Some Key Institutional Contributors	154	(1)
Sampling	155	(1)
Box 6.1 Institutional Example: Florida Community College at Jacksonville	155	(2)
Times and Contexts for Collecting Evidence	157	(1)
Scoring	158	(1)
Box 6.2 Institutional Example: University of South Florida	159	(1)
Analysis and Presentation of Results	160	(1)
Collective Interpretation of Analyzed Results	160	(1)
A Narrated Cycle	161	(1)
Box 6.3 Institutional Example: Mesa Community College	161	(2)
Beyond a Cycle	163	(1)
Box 6.4 Institutional Example: Implementation of the Assessment Process at Providence College, 1999--2005	164	(1)
Box 6.5 Institutional Example: Providence College	164	(1)
Works Cited	165	(1)
Additional Resources	165	(2)
Worksheets, Guides, and Exercises	167	(4)
Building A Core Institutional Process of Inquiry Over Time	171	(28)
Overview	171	(1)
A View of the Whole	171	(1)
Some Representative Structures, Processes, Decisions, and Channels and Forms of Communication	172	(1)
Some Representative Structures	172	(1)
Box 7.1 Institutional Example: Portland State University	173	(2)
Box 7.2 Institutional Example: United States Naval Academy	175	(1)
Offices of Institutional Research and Planning	175	(1)
Box 7.3 Institutional Example: Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology	176	(1)
Processes and Decisions	176	(1)
Channels and Forms of Communication	176	(1)
Resources and Support: Human, Financial, and Technological	177	(1)
Box 7.4 Institutional Example: Indiana University--Purdue University Indianapolis	178	(3)
Campus Practices that Manifest an Institutional Commitment	181	(1)
Signs of Maturation	181	(1)
Box 7.5 Institutional Example: University of Wisconsin--River Falls	182	(1)
Works Cited	183	(1)
Additional Resources	183	(2)
Worksheets, Guides, and Exercises	185	(5)
Appendix 7.1 Institutional Example: Guam Community College's Institutional Commitment to Assessment: An Evolving Story of Dialogue and Ritual	190	(6)
Appendix 7.2 Consent Form	196	(3)
Index	199