>An Assessment Framework for the Community College - Students attend

>community colleges for a variety of reasons, yet at the heart of each of

>these reasons is the desire to improve skills, increase knowledge, or

>change attitudes. Read about how a white paper drafted by a team of

>community college practitioners and assessment industry experts establishes

>an assessment framework to address these desires, in the October Learning

>Abstracts.

>

>** To view the web version of this abstract, in printer friendly layout, go

>to http://www.league.org/publication/abstracts/learning/lelabs0410.html **

>

>Published monthly with Support from Datatel (www.datatel.com)

>__________________________________________________________

>An Assessment Framework for the Community College

>

>Through the collaboration of a dedicated advisory team of community college

>practitioners and assessment industry experts, the League for Innovation in

>the Community College and Questionmark Corporation have facilitated a white

>paper titled "An Assessment Framework for the Community College: Measuring

>Student Learning and Achievement as a Means of Demonstrating Institutional

>Effectiveness."

>

>This team worked diligently through meetings, email correspondence, and

>conference calls to develop the philosophy, content, and structure of the

>Assessment Framework for the Community College. Questionmark Corporation

>committed resources to the project to draft the paper, facilitate meetings,

>and produce the final copy. The paper is labeled Version 1.0, indicating

>that the framework will continue to evolve as educators apply its concepts

>and principles and identify ways in which to improve and expand its focus.

>

>A complete version of this white paper is available on both the League

>(http://www.league.org/publication/whitepapers/0804.html) and the

>Questionmark (http://questionmark.com/us/whitepapers/index.htm) websites.

>

>The goal of this paper is to establish an Assessment Framework for the

>Community College and to contextualize that framework within the concept of

>the Learning College. A major premise of the paper is that the assessment

>of student learning can generate data to support continuous improvement

>efforts necessary for documenting institutional effectiveness.

>

>It must be noted that institutional effectiveness may be measured in a

>number of areas, such as graduation, retention, job placement, number and

>effectiveness of student services, management and administrative structure,

>and physical infrastructure; while measurement in these areas is critical,

>it is intentionally not the focus of this paper. Rather, this paper focuses

>on the measurement of student learning and development throughout learning

>processes that take place both inside and outside the physical and virtual

>classrooms.

>

>Students attend community colleges for a variety of reasons - to earn a

>degree, earn a certificate, obtain transfer credits, develop specific

>skills through one or two courses - yet at the heart of each of these

>reasons is the desire to improve skills, increase knowledge, or change

>attitudes. Skills, knowledge, and attitudes may be affected through

>instructional programs inside physical and virtual classrooms or through

>student service activities outside of the classroom setting. Regardless of

>where the learning is taking place, measuring learning will help an

>institution gauge whether or not students are achieving their educational

>goals. If learning can be documented at the student level, then it is

>possible to aggregate assessment data in ways to provide information at the

>course, program, division, and institutional levels. In this way,

>assessment data gathered at the student level may be used to promote

>continuous improvement efforts, which over time will yield documentation

>for institutional effectiveness.

>

>In some college settings, where the student population is constantly

>changing, assessment data is not as useful at the student level as it is at

>the aggregate level. In these settings, aggregate data can be used to

>benefit the curriculum and faculty development opportunities important to

>continuous improvement initiatives.

>

>While assessment data provides beneficial information to instructors and

>administrators, students also benefit directly and indirectly from

>assessment results. Through the appropriate use of assessments, students

>receive direct feedback on their educational progress, helping them take

>ownership of and understand critical next steps in their educational plan.

>Students are also the beneficiaries of college, program, and course-level

>continuous improvement efforts supported and sustained through the

>systematic collection and analysis of assessment data.

>

>In support of the measurement of student learning, the assessment framework

>will provide an assessment vocabulary, implementation processes, and

>methods for data generation and reporting. The framework does not intend to

>prescribe one assessment methodology for measuring student learning;

>instead, the framework should be viewed as a set of building blocks and

>best practices that can be assembled, modified, or shaped to a particular

>institution's integrated approach to learning, teaching, and assessment.

>Similarly, the vocabulary is intended to provide a baseline of terms.

>Colleges should use the definitions to establish a common understanding

>among stakeholders so that, if necessary, college-specific definitions may

>be developed. The goal of the assessment framework is to provide a

>foundation of terms, processes, and procedures so that all stakeholders

>involved with the development or consumption of assessment results may

>operate from a common understanding.

>_______________________________________________________________

>** To view the web version of this abstract, in printer friendly layout, go

>to http://www.league.org/publication/abstracts/learning/lelabs0410.html **

>

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