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> Office of the Provost > Student Outcomes Assessment > Background
Provost's Charge for Assessment
| To: |
Academic Deans and Department Heads |
| From: |
Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, John Drumheller |
| Date: |
August 29, 1995 |
| Re: |
Program to Assess Student Learning |
During their accreditation visit in 1990, reviewers from the Northwest Association of Schools
and Colleges informed us that, over the next decade, we would be expected to develop a program
to assess student learning as directed by their newly established standards. Our mid-decade
review by the Northwest Association will occur on October 30-31, and we have begun efforts to
design a program that will yield results for our next accreditation review in 2000.
Although "assessment" has acquired some unfortunate bureaucratic connotations, at its best an
ongoing evaluation of our curricula and teaching methods is at the heart of the educational
enterprise. We ask ourselves, "What do we expect our students to learn?" and "How do we know
that they've learned it?" A good assessment program creates faculty dialogue and keeps our
course and curricular offerings from becoming stale. We will use what we learn from our
assessment program to improve our curricula and methods, thus helping our students to achieve
their academic goals.
Since last February, a task force comprised of Arthur Coffin, Cel Johnson, and an assistant or
associate dean from each academic college has been meeting regularly to help us plan for the
Northwest Association's October visit. Last month, I formalized that task force as the
Assessment and Outcomes Committee and charged the group to develop an assessment program
in general education and education within the major. Because Arthur is retiring, I have asked Cel
to coordinate the program, and I have hired Mary Ann Brown, a graduate student in education
with extensive practical experience in educational administration, to assist her. We are
committed to the idea that assessment of student learning must be done by the faculty, within
academic departments.
Academic year 1995-96 will be devoted to planning assessment in the majors and developing
capstone courses in conjunction with the commitments made in the PQO document. In academic
year 1996-97, departments will begin implementing those plans, and we will extend our efforts to
an assessment of general education. The Assessment and Outcomes Committee and your faculty
will need your support to create a successful assessment program.
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