A message from the
Vice President for Student Services
The current assessment program reflects the department’s success in moving, to a large extent, from a program-mprovement student satisfaction-based initiative to a student learning-based one.
Each division within the College’s Department of Student Services has been expected, for the last several years, to formulate 3-4 program objectives related to the department’s mission, goals, and priorities. This year at least one of those outcomes must be a student-learning oriented one with measurable outcomes associated with it. To ensure that all are speaking the same language, directors and managers of various student services divisions rely on the following definitions that constitute the framework for their assessment and evaluation activities:
- The Division Mission must be directly aligned with those of the College and the Department. This statement should include approximately 3-5 sentences that identify the (a) name of the department, (b) its primary functions, (c) modes of delivery, and (d) target audience.
- The Planning Goals are broad statements that describe the over-aching long-range intention of a division or unit. Goals are used primarily for general planning, as the starting point for the development and refinement of program objectives or student learning outcomes.
- The Objectives or Outcomes can be one or two types: (a) program objectives, and (b) student learning outcomes. The former are related to program improvement around issues like timeliness, efficiency, and participant satisfaction. The latter address what a student learns or how a student changes by participating in the program or utilizing the service. Both program objectives and student learning outcomes are measurable statements that provide evidence regarding the degree to which the unit is reaching its goals.
- Methods and Measures clearly but briefly describe several things: (a) the assessment instrument being used; (b) the population being studied and the conditions under which they are being studied; (c) the timeframe of the assessment; and (d) any benchmarks against which to measure either change, behavior modification, or learning.
- Findings are actual data that is gathered through the assessment tool employed (e.g., pre-and post test scores, rubric scores, workload estimates, and the number of students served by a particular program. After presenting the date, the finding section describes clearly and concisely the degree to which the program objective or student learning outcome was met.
- Conclusion or Status sometimes called closing the loop, consists of a brief narrative identifying what decisions and/or program modifications will be made on the basis of the assessment outcomes. The conclusion tells the story: “Here is where we started, here is what really happened, here is what we learned, and here is what we will do next.” If the current measures are part of an ongoing, long-term assessment project, the status of the project should be described here.
Each division assessment report includes six components: mission statement, planning goals, program objectives or student learning outcomes, methods and measures, findings, and conclusion/status. It is our hope that you find this report useful. If you have questions or comments on ways to improve our assessment process, please do not hesitate to let us know. Thank you.
Ringlen P. Ringlen
Vice President for Student Services
August 6, 2012
