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| Assessment at Macalester | ||||||||
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Assessment at Macalester:
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What are the goals of “assessment” at Macalester? As outlined in the Assessment Plan for Macalester College, the objective of our Assessment Plan is to:
Why aren’t course grades enough? The question is continually asked why course grades no longer are considered sufficient evaluation of student progress. "Don't grades have any meaning?” Well, of course, classroom grades are useful for the evaluation of individual students and they provide students with valuable information about how their learning is being judged. Assessment, however, involves a much “coarser” evaluation for the purpose of determining whether students in a major or a program are developing skills that are usually broader than what might be taught in a specific course. The whole thrust of the assessment movement is to provide additional, more comprehensive, and more long-term evidence of student achievement. Why? First, course grades represent evaluation of limited objectives that often are not related to program objectives. The issue with grades is often whether the student’s performance is worthy of a B+ or an A- rather than whether the student has met a specific objective or not. At best, grades are a type of "formative" assessment. There is too much inconsistency from section-to-section and term-to-term for grades to be a totally valid overall program assessment. Secondly, there is an inherent conflict of interest when the instructor is the only evaluator of whether the students have met program objectives. Third, we really need to know more about the long-term learning and accomplishments of our graduates. What do they know and what can they do at the end of the program? Finding out about their perceptions, attitudes and skills five years after graduation, on the job, in graduate school, or throughout the student's life is more difficult, but an area we are increasingly asked to provide information about. To put it another way, you assess students in your classes to determine how much they have learned in your classes and to assign grades. "Assessment of academic programs" is intended to assess how well programs are working by looking at the assessment results of groups of students in those programs. Therefore, an effective assessment program requires that the faculty in those programs have agreed upon the learning outcomes or learning goals for all students in the program, regardless of the courses that they take. Then, the faculty members need to agree upon how they are going to determine what the students have learned. When faculty assess students as a group rather than as individual students, look at the assessment results from a program perspective, analyze those results, and determine whether they need to revise anything in the program, then they are conducting assessment of the academic program. Dan Balik February, 2006 Portions of this statement were adapted from material found on the UC-Santa Barbara, Skidmore College, and Bucknell University websites.
At what levels is assessment done? Macalester continually seeks to assess and improve its education program. This takes place at several levels:
Who is involved in assessment? A successful assessment program must engage a wide variety of perspectives, and should foster participation. Macalester encourages faculty, staff and students to participate in the planning and implementation of assessment. Here’s a brief description of the role each plays:
Your participation will help Macalester gauge its performance in helping you develop critical skills, and direct college resources to support what works. Macalester’s assessment program provides meaningful insight not only into program performance, but also into the fulfillment of our mission. An important part of effective assessment is to achieve universal student participation. Last year, approximately 90% of first year students completed a general education assessment assignment. Higher participation rates mean better, more reliable results. Questions? Suggestions? Contact us!
General Education Assessment at Macalester Perspectives from the Macalester Assessment Steering Committee (MASC):
Macalester engages in a cycle of assessment and improvement in our general educational program. This takes place at several levels, including specific assessment initiatives for general education assessment. The purpose of general education assessment at Macalester is not to evaluate individual students or to classify or grade them. Rather, the unit of analysis is the College itself, and the purpose is to collect information about the impact our education program has on students and student learning. Many groups on campus play key roles in assessment. One such group is the Macalester Assessment Steering Committee (MASC.) Macalester’s general education assessment tools include: To complement the CLA and MLA, additional instruments are used to collect students’ self-reported gains on various skills:
In addition to instruments that measure the effectiveness of our general education program, Macalester implements a wide variety of departmental and individual course assessments. Three years after graduation, the Institutional Research Office also administers a survey of parents of recent graduates to collect information about activities after graduation.
As part of its assessment efforts, Macalester has participated in the Collegiate Learning Assessment (CLA) since 2005. Macalester’s administration of the CLA has been supported by grants from both the Teagle Foundation and the Lumina Foundation. The CLA is an assessment instrument that addresses critical thinking, analytic reasoning, and written communication skills. A large number of colleges and universities administer this instrument, making it possible for Macalester to compare its learning outcomes to those of other institutions. While a general view of student learning is critical, the Macalester Assessment Steering Committee (MASC) also identified a number of supplementary factors, specific to Macalester, to examine. To address these factors, Macalester recently launched an additional proprietary instrument: the Macalester Learning Assessment (MLA). While the CLA concentrates on more general topic areas, the MLA focuses specifically on issues that are critical to Macalester and its mission: learning outcomes for multiculturalism, internationalism, and general liberal arts. Student groups are randomly selected to complete either the CLA or MLA. Effective measurement of learning outcomes requires a benchmark from which to compare future results. For this reason, starting in 2007, each first year student is asked to complete an initial learning assessment (CLA or MLA), providing baseline data. Then, students are asked to complete an assessment at two other points in time: at the end of their sophomore year, and during the spring of their senior year. This method allows Macalester to measure intermediate as well as graduation results. Intermediate results are used to measure Macalester’s ongoing impact on student learning, and also to adjust programming matters as needed. The final graduation measurement helps Macalester to understand its four-year impact, and confirm the sustained quality of the academic program. Both the CLA and MLA are valuable tools in understanding the impact Macalester has on student learning outcomes. The use of these tools together will provide meaningful insight not only into program performance, but also into the fulfillment of our mission. As outlined in the Assessment Plan for Macalester College, an important part of creating an effective assessment structure is to achieve universal participation of students. In 2007, a total of 425 first year students completed an assessment. This represents a participation rate of almost 90%, an excellent participation rate. Support from advisers, orientation leaders, proctors and students are a vital part of the program’s success. If you have questions about assessment itself, or suggestions about how we may improve the process in the future, please do not hesitate to contact the Campus Assessment Facilitator.
About the Macalester Assessment Steering Committee (MASC)
MASC was created by President Rosenberg. The committee comprises a group of faculty and staff who consider assessment ideas and make recommendations for their implementation. For more information about how the committee was formed, or for information regarding Macalester’s goals for assessment, please see the Assessment Plan for Macalester College. While there is recognition that assessment is important, there are a variety of perspectives on the best assessment methods and tools. MASC carefully considers assessment, its advantages, and also the challenges to implementing a successful program. MASC members contemplate questions such as:
NSSE The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) provides information about the quality of the undergraduate experience. It assesses student engagement in five key areas – academic challenge, active and collaborative learning, interaction with faculty, educational experiences, and campus environment. It is administered to freshmen and seniors through the Center for Postsecondary Research and Planning at Indiana University. Specific areas covered by the NSSE include:
CSEQ The College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CSEQ) assesses the quality of effort that college students expend in using the resources and opportunities provided by the institution. The CSEQ is available from the Indiana University Center for Postsecondary Research and Planning. Specific areas covered by the CSEQ include:
College Student Survey (CSS) The College Student Survey (CSS) was designed as a follow-up instrument to the CIRP Freshman Survey. Many questions are common to both surveys. When linked with CIRP Freshman Survey data, the CSS shows how students have changed since entering college. The CSS is usually administered to seniors, but can also be administered as a stand-alone survey at any level. The CSS is offered through the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at UCLA. Specific areas covered by the CSS include:
HEDS Senior Survey The HEDS Senior Survey is administered by the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium (of which Macalester is a member) at Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania. It focuses heavily on future plans of graduates and evaluation of the undergraduate experience. Specific areas covered by the Senior Survey include:
HEDS Alumni Survey The HEDS Alumni Survey is administered by the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium (of which Macalester is a member) at Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania. The survey is administered to alumni 5 years after graduation, asking about their activities since graduation and evaluation of their undergraduate experience. Specific areas covered by the Alumni Survey include:
Parents of Graduates Survey Since 1999, the Institutional Research Office has been surveying the parents of Macalester graduates to see what their sons or daughters are doing 3 years after graduation. Every year parents of graduates receive a short letter asking specifically about advanced degrees pursued by their son or daughter with a stamped return envelope. If parents do not respond, email is sent to the graduate. Response rates for these surveys in the last five years range from 53% to 69% Parents are surveyed instead of graduates because they move less often, so surveys are more likely to reach their destination. In addition, parents generally like to tell you what their sons or daughters are doing.
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