Transcript A Team-Based Assessment Model

A Team-Based Assessment Model
Annual Conference on First-Year Assessment
October 12-14, 2008
San Antonio, Texas
John N. Gardner
Executive Director,
Policy Center on The First Year of College
Focus on the Institution
Institutional
Policies,
Structures,
Practices,
Procedures
What we
CONTROL
What
students
do
What we can
CHANGE
Student
success
What we can
CONTINUE
First-Year as a
Single Unit of Analysis
Students experience “the college” as a whole –
not as an array of units/divisions.
Assessment, historically, has chopped up the
first year into artificially distinct programs.
What is the Foundations of
Excellence Self Study?
®
Builds on 30 year First Year Experience reform movement
Takes a holistic approach to the first year
Aspirational, not minimum, standards
Model for assessment and improvement
Voluntary, comprehensive self study
May be linked to reaccreditation
New form of task force based assessment
The Standards Model
Foundations of Excellence® in the First College Year
Rationale
FYE—a 20 year old reform movement
A victim of its own success
First-year orientation seminar
Focused on retention
Fragmented activities
Foundations Project—an attempt to move beyond
narrow, program-level assessment
Aspirational model
Measurement model
Foundations of Excellence®
Project began in 2003 with four-year sector
(with 124 pilot and 24 “Founding Institutions”)
Extended in 2005 to two-year institutions
(with 88 pilot and 10 “Founding Institutions”)
Currently, 20 four-year and 10 two-year participants
To date, 147 institutions, both four-year and two-year,
have participated in Foundations of Excellence
FoE Key Components
Foundational Dimensions®
Performance Indicators
Faculty Staff & Student Surveys
Current Practices Inventory (CPI)
Policy Center Written Feedback
Foundational Dimensions
®
Philosophy
All Students
Organization
Diversity
Learning
Roles & Purposes
Faculty/Campus Culture
Improvement
Transitions
Philosophy
• The problem: Many approaches to the first
year have no underlying philosophical base,
no purpose beyond retention.
• Why this Dimension is important: The
experience of first-year students should be
crafted with a sense of educational purpose.
Organization
• The problem: No one in charge; inefficient
and confusing “silos”
• Why this Dimension is important:
Organization is essential to the realization of
purpose.
Learning
• The problem: Inadequate attention to learning
• Why this Dimension is important: Learning is
the primary purpose of going to college.
Transitions
• The problem: Uneven attention to elements of
successful transition
• Why this Dimension is important: The success
of the initial transition predicts future
collegiate success.
Faculty/Campus Culture
(Four-Year/Two-Year)
• The problem: Need for more meaningful
faculty and staff involvement with first-year
students
• Why this Dimension is important: Without
involvement of faculty and staff, first-year
initiatives are difficult to launch and sustain.
All Students
• The problem: Many initiatives reach only
certain students; others do not reach
populations with special needs.
• Why this Dimension is important: All new
students have developmental needs that should
be addressed.
Diversity
• The problem: Institutions vary in the degree to
which they successfully address diversity
issues.
• Why this Dimension is important: Education
about human difference is an important
component of the beginning college
experience.
Roles & Purposes
• The problem: Students’ narrow view of the
purpose of higher education
• Why this Dimension is important: The first
year is the time for exploration of roles and
purposes.
Improvement
• The problem: Too few initiatives are subjected
to rigorous assessment. Institutional isolation –
lack of exposure to others
• Why this Dimension is important:
Improvement is vital to sustainability and
effectiveness.
FoE Task Force: The engine of the process
Faculty
Academic
Affairs
Students
Admissions &
Recruiting
Student Affairs
Assessment
Professionals
Others who
interact with 1st
year students
Review the Foundational Dimensions®
Access FoEtec®
Consider Task Force Membership and Leader Options
Design the Work Flow
Target Dates - Survey Administration Decisions
Steering Committee Established & Meets Regularly
Coordinates the Current Practices Inventory (CPI)
Oversees the Foundations of Excellence Surveys
Manages the Process and Campus Communications
Dimension
Review
Dimension
Review
Dimension
Review
Dimension
Review
Dimension
Review
Dimension
Review
Dimension
Review
Dimension
Review
Dimension
Review
Steering Committee Pulls It All Together
Final Foundations of Excellence Report
Executive
Summary
Report
Card
Report
Narrative
Prioritized
Actions
Implementation
Plan
Communicate Findings and Advocate for Improvement
Implementation
Periodic Review
Adjustment
FoE tec
®
®
Excellence
Foundations of
Technology
FoEtec® - Hands-on Assessment
Password protected online site– accessible 24/7
Access to the Current Practices Inventory &
Performance Indicators specific to each Dimension
Access to FoE Faculty/Staff & First-Year Student
Surveys and Results
Self-study materials are developed and stored in one
central location that is accessible to everyone on the
task force.
Maintains a record of the self study and action item
recommendations
Self-Study Home Base
Software supports and structures the self-study process
Manages Task Force Membership
Designed to insure long-term campus ownership of the
resulting improvement plan
Progression Tracking
Current Practices Inventory
The CPI is a comprehensive audit of all policies,
practices, and programs affecting first-year students
Accessible to all task force members, the CPI is updated
throughout the process and provides a basis for
evaluation
Data Tools
Systematic evidence provides validation of the Dimensions
Software provides a variety of resources for understanding
and managing the survey process
Survey results are integrated into the software to aid
evaluation of institutional performance
Managing the Surveys
The surveys are managed using an advanced suite of
tools called the Web Enabled Survey System (WESS)
E-mail Distribution
Variety of Tracking & Reporting Features
Filtering Results by Demographics
Dimensions
The Dimensions provide general guidelines for an
intentional design of the first year
Task force members use specific Performance
Indicators to evaluate institutional achievement of the
nine Foundational Dimensions®
Performance Indicators
Unique Performance Indicators (PIs) are used to
examine institutional achievement of each
Dimension
PIs guides committee discussions and interaction
Record of evaluations and recommendations
Evidence Library
The Evidence Library is a central location for task
force members to archive sources of evidence
These documents and links are used in evaluating
institutional achievement of the nine Dimensions.
A Generic Self Study Template
1) We specifically recommend that a campus undertake a
“self study” (yes, the two most dreaded words in the
higher ed lexicon!)
2) And that this self study be conducted by a campuswide task force charged to develop a strategic action
plan for improvement
3) Evaluate institutional performance using some
aspirational measures (we suggest those of excellence,
and connected to the institutional mission statement)
4) Collect existing and new evidence, educate task force
members, and use to make judgments and
recommendations
5) Conduct an inventory of current policies,
practices, high enrollment courses, high
DWFI courses and student characteristics
6) Engage in a collegial, inclusive, intellectually
stimulating process of analysis and decision
making
7) Affirm what is working well
8) Recommend changes for what is not
working well
9) Develop a vision, an intentional plan for
your beginning college experience
Key Elements of a Generic Study of
the First Year
• Make the first year a unit of analysis-- in its entirety.
• Discover and USE the data that you already have
about the first year.
• Develop, implement, and continually evaluate your
plan.
• Consider linking with procedures for assessment
incorporated into reaffirmation of accreditation.
Contact Information
John N. Gardner, 828-966-5309
[email protected]
www.fyfoundations.org
www.firstyear.org