Week 4 - Future Implications for Student Affairs Assessment

Future Implications for Student Affairs Assessment

Since former U.S. Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings, issued the final report from the Commission on the Future of Higher Education in 2006, higher education has been on the accountability radar as never before. Higher education, specifically NASULGC (now known as APLU) and AASCU responded in 2006 to what is now called the Spellings Report by creating the Voluntary System of Accountability using the College Portrait standardized website. Participating colleges and universities volunteer to use the site, which includes such information as the Common Data Set, the National Survey of Student Engagement and the CLA to provide a “portrait” of its institution for prospective students and parents. Accountability to governments as well as our students and other constituents is part of the fabric of higher education today. VSA also provides a vehicle for collaboration between academic affairs and student affairs to provide the best possible data for their institution.

The U.S. News and World Report just published its 2009 report on colleges and universities. According to the Chronicle of Higher Education (date), the number of institutions submitting information has increased again this year.

Planning and assessment courses are now common in higher education programs, including specific courses in student affairs assessment and research on students. Speakers at assessment conferences emphasize the importance of including assessment activity in job descriptions. The SAAER Knowledge Community within NASPA is discussing the use of assessment mentors and for-credit assessment practitioner internships to increase knowledge and develop skills within our profession.

It is important to remember that we need to “tell our story” in student affairs by using our data in interactions with faculty and staff, students and parents and with our alumni. Everyone loves to be connected to a winning team, and Student Affairs is a vital contributor to student success.

Author - Dr. Jan Hillman, Executive Director, Planning and Advancement for Student Development, University of North Texas

References:

www.voluntarysystem.org

www.collegeportraits.org

www.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2006/09/09192006.html

www.educause.edu/resources/browse/spellingsreport/31947

Questions:

What are you doing in your offices to prepare staff to be successful in assessment?

How are you using your data to “tell your story”?

What successful collaborations do you have with Academic Affairs in the area of assessment?

Week 3 - Two Innovative Assessment Programs in Student Affairs

The Planning and Assessment Office at the University of North Texas developed an interactive, MS Excel-based document to facilitate departmental program review using Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education guidelines. The Excel document automatically generates real-time graphical summaries of criterion measure scores for each part of the review as well as a text report of these measures to share with upper administration. In addition, the interactive format is equipped with placeholders for documents associated to programmatic review to allow easy access in following years. To date, three Student Development departments have used this new tool to facilitate their CAS programmatic reviews with significant time savings. The Dashboard is the centerpiece in a comprehensive “CAS process” at UNT that includes peripheral documents and presentations to create a retreat-style program review with maximum staff participation. 

This format creates an inclusive environment as well as dialogue to engage student affairs staff in continuous improvement efforts. More information about the CAS Dashboard can be found at: http://pasd.unt.edu/resources/index.html#presentations

The advent of electronic portfolios allows students, staff and faculty to track accomplishments and learning outcomes over time. These portfolios allow students to store evidence from both curricular and co-curricular outcomes and represent a content-rich assessment that documents student learning and development. The portfolios can also be used to track the progress and improvement of programs and services. Electronic portfolios have become a hot topic at recent assessment conferences including the 2008 IUPUI Assessment Institute for both academic and student affairs assessment. More information on the use of electronic portfolios can be found here:
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/112217001/PDFSTART
http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Review/EDUCAUSEReviewMagazineVolume39/TheDigitalConvergenceExtending/157910
http://portfolio.psu.edu/

Author - Dr. Sharon Karackattu, Director, Planning and Assessment Office in Student Development, University of North Texas


Question: What other innovative ideas do you know about in student affairs assessment?

Week 2 - Student Affairs Practitioners as Assessment Practitioners

Student Affairs Practitioners as Assessment Practitioners

As the call to demonstrate the value and learning outcomes of programs grows, student affairs practitioners are increasingly finding themselves responsible for comprehensive assessment activities from instrument development to data analysis and reporting. This emphasis on assessment within the realm of student affairs practice is illustrated through a variety of publications and programs including:
“Assessment Tips for Student Affairs Professionals” (Bauer & Hanson) http://www.elcamino.edu/administration/vpsca/docs/assessment/AssessmentTips_StudentAffairs_NASPA.pdf

The Student Learning Imperative: Implications for Student Affairs

(American College Personnel Association) http://www.acpa.nche.edu/sli/sli.htm

Many large universities now have a student affairs assessment office with one or multiple full-time staff and graduate students to oversee and assist with assessment projects including collaborations with other campus entities including Institutional Research and Academic Affairs. Many offices maintain websites with sample instruments, assessment plans and the results of recent student affairs assessment projects as a model and source of information for student assessment practitioners. NASPA’s SAAER Knowledge Community maintains a list of relevant student affairs assessment websites from a variety of institutions. http://www.naspa.org/kc/saaer/websites.cfm

It is necessary for student affairs departments to conduct program reviews that revisit mission statements, demonstrate evidence for achievement of learning outcomes and benchmark their practices against peer institutions. The Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) provides guidelines to assist most student affairs departments in their program reviews with emphasis on learning outcomes. Other departments may choose to use standards set by their professional organizations.

NASPA’s Framework for Assessment http://www.uncc.edu/stuaffairsFrameworkBrochure-Feb09.pdf


NASPA’s Student Affairs Assessment, Evaluation and Research Knowledge Community provides information such as an Assessment Framework, Student Affairs Websites, Accreditation Websites and Resources as well as a Listserv to foster networking and disseminate information. The Assessment Framework is particularly useful in allowing practitioners to select training options and to develop in-house training seminars for their colleagues throughout Student Affairs. http://www.naspa.org/kc/saaer/default.cfm

Conferences dedicated to student affairs assessment like the IUPUI Assessment Institute, ACPA’s Assessment In Student Affairs Institute and NASPA’s International Assessment and Retention Conference draw assessment practitioners from around the world to share best practices, research and novel strategies employed at their institutions. These assessment conferences address a wide range of topics in student affairs from creating comprehensive assessment plans to finding time for assessment to issues of retention and graduation. http://www.myacpa.org/pd/assessment/
http://www.assessconf.net/
http://planning.iupui.edu/701.html

Beyond external assessment resources available to practitioners, another suggestion is reaching out to staff, that have experience with qualitative and quantitative research within your Division. Planning a series of internal assessment brownbag sessions would assist staff members whose direct role may not be assessment. Topics which could prove helpful include utilizing survey data, interpreting results, and conducting focus groups. Building partnerships with the College of Education faculty and Institutional Research would be advantageous.

Authors: Dr. Sharon Karackattu, Director, and Jason F. Simon, M. Ed., Graduate Assistant Planning and Assessment Office in Student Development, University of North Texas

Question: What other resources would you suggest to improve assessment activities?

Week 1 - History of Student Affairs Assessment

Assessment in Student Affairs has come a long way from satisfaction surveys and activity/program evaluations in the last 10-15 years. We in Student Affairs also rely less on our corporate wisdom of what students need and look to hard data and listen to our students’ voices. According to El-Khawas (1995), in the early 1980’s only a small number of campuses were assessing educational programs. In large part both academics and student affairs have increased assessment and evaluation activities due to pressure from outside entities such as federal and state governments, governing boards, parents, students and the general public (Upcraft and Schuh, 1996).

Ten years ago when we established our Assessment Office in our Student Development Division, there were very few student affairs assessment offices across the United States. Two Texas institutions, Texas State University and Texas A&M, were the first in the state to set the pace for the rest of us. At that time research on students and any surveys for student affairs departments were handled by institutional research offices and academic departments. A good example of this is the Cooperative Institutional Research Project (CIRP) surveys that have been administered for over 40 years by the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA.

Today student affairs professionals are more likely to be familiar with comprehensive assessment plans using both qualitative and quantitative data to make informed decisions. With the publication of Learning Reconsidered (NASPA, ACPA, etc.), we are focusing on student learning outcomes.

References:

ACPA, NASPA. Learning Reconsidered. Washington, DC: NASPA, ACPA, 2004.
El-Khawas, E. Campus Trends, 1995. 
Higher Education Panel Report No. 85. Washington, DC: American Council on Education, 1995
Upcraft, M.L. &; Schuh, J.H. Assessment in Student Affairs: A Guide for Practitioners. San
Francisco: Jossey- Bass, 1996.

Blog Author - Dr. Jan Hillman, Executive Director, Planning and Advancement for Student Development University of North Texas

Processing Question: What structure does your student affairs division use to

direct assessment activities?

September's Focus: Assessment in Student Affairs (Weeks 1-5)

Readers,

Welcome to a new school year! This month, we are very fortunate to have guest bloggers from the Office of Planning and Advancement for Student Development at the University of North Texas. Our guest bloggers are:

Dr. Jan Hillman, Executive Director, Planning and Advancement for Student Development

Dr. Sharon Karackattu, Director, Planning and Advancement for Student Development

Mr. Jason F. Simon, M.Ed., Graduate Assistant, Office of Planning and Advancement for Student Development

The TACUSPA blog will feature weekly posts from our guest bloggers on the topic of "Assessment in Student Affairs". This month's posts will focus on the following topics:

Week 1 - History of Student Affairs Assessment
Week 2 - Student Affairs Practitioners as Assessment Practitioners
Week 3 - Two Innovative Assessment Programs in Student Affairs
Week 4 - Future Implications for Student Affairs Assessment
Week 5 - Tapping Non-Users for 360 Degree Evaluation

*Each post will feature PROCESSING QUESTIONS. Please respond to these processing questions. We want to have YOUR take on the subject!