Submitted by Brett Fulkerson-Smith, Chair of the Learning Assessment Committee
Don’t LOVE assessment? Linda Suskie offers three reasons why you should (“Why are We Assessing?,” Inside Higher Ed, October 26, 2010)!
First, assessment helps us ensure that we are providing our students with the best possible education. But this can only happen when the work of assessment is undertaken in the context of improving teaching and learning. “Too many of us are separating work on assessment from work on improving teaching and learning, when they should be two sides of the same coin.”
Second, assessment doesn’t just help us ensure that students learn what is important. Assessment also helps us ensure that student learning is of appropriate depth, score, and rigor. But this can only happen when we contextualize our assessment data: comparing it with appropriate targets or benchmarks, of course, but also our own historical, assessment data.
Third, assessment helps us to spend well other people’s money. Suskie wonders, when colleges and universities increase class sizes, are those increases based on evidence on how class size affects learning? When classes are moved online, do those transitions flow from evidence of online teaching practices that promote learning? When student support programs are cut back, are those decisions informed by evidence of the impact of the programs on student success? When academic programs are trimmed, do those decisions flow from evidence of student learning as well as costs?
A campus-wide culture of assessment is fundamental to the attainment of these goals. According to Lakos and Phipps, a culture of assessment is an environment where faculty, staff, and administrators know what assessment results they produce, how these results relate to the institutional outcomes for the College and learning outcomes for students, and utilization of the assessment results for continuous improvement of the institution and student learning. The Learning Assessment Committee is dedicated to sustaining a culture of assessment at Harper College. The National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) recently recognized Harper’s commitment to outcomes assessment for successfully integrating assessment practices throughout the institution, providing evidence of student learning outcomes, and using assessment results to guide institutional decision-making and improve student performance. Inspired by this success, the Learning Assessment Committee is conducting an online survey of faculty to determine the extent to which Harper College provides a positive culture of outcomes assessment. We invite you to share your thoughts by completing the survey when you receive it!