Frequently Asked Questions
(and maybe some you didn’t think of)
Why do I need to make sure my students are learning? Isn’t that their responsibility?
Don’t grades show whether or not students are learning?
Why do we need to do assessment continuously? Isn’t it just for accreditation?
So how does assessment relate to the current Middle States Self-Study?
What is assessment?
There are many answers to this question. Some useful definitions are listed below:
It is also important to keep in mind what assessment is not: assessment is not about evaluating individual student performance, not about evaluating faculty teaching performance, and not about evaluating program marketability or viability.
Why do I need to make sure my students are learning? Isn’t that their responsibility?
Students are responsible for their own learning. But we are responsible for articulating our learning goals, for providing meaningful learning experiences, for offering students appropriate ways to demonstrate their learning, and for evaluating their learning in terms of valid standards or other means of determining achievement. Assessment begins with documenting that we have met these responsibilities. Assessment of student learning provides the ultimate evidence that we have met our learning goals, or if we haven’t, provides direction for improvement. Yes, some students may fail or be unable to take responsibility for their learning and we cannot control that, but if we are meeting our responsibilities, most of them will be successful.
Don’t grades show whether or not students are learning?
Grades are not evidence of learning. Grades usually reflect individual achievement of a set of expectations within the context of a particular classroom. As such, grades measure performance on tests, assignments, and projects; course grades also include, typically, performance of various behaviors including attendance, participation, effort, and so on. Assessment takes place within the context of a defined academic unit—in higher education, this unit is usually the academic degree program. Other academic units that can be the context for assessment include cross-disciplinary curricula such as general education or cross-disciplinary educational objectives such as information literacy. Tests, assignments, and projects are ways for students to demonstrate their learning, but they do not constitute assessment unless they are interpreted within the context of an academic unit for which learning goals have been articulated and used to develop and evaluate student learning experiences.
Why does assessment need to be done within the context of an academic unit? Don’t I have the right to teach my courses as I see fit?
Academic freedom is vital to American higher education and is a protected right. Assessment of student learning within the context of an academic unit should not compromise academic freedom because the learning goals of any given academic unit are determined by the faculty teaching in it.
Why do we need to do assessment continuously? Isn’t it just for accreditation?
Assessment is a natural and ongoing activity that is central to teaching and learning. Accreditation is a periodic “window” on this activity. The window gives us the opportunity to look at how our institution and our academic units are doing at a given point in time with respect to our goals. To do assessment only for accreditation would take from us the power to set our own goals and to be proactive; if we do not do assessment continuously, we will merely react to expectations set for us by others. In fact, the principal requirement for accreditation is to show that we have developed and implemented ongoing assessment goals and processes and that we are using the results to improve student learning.
So how
does assessment relate to the Middle States Self-Study that
The Middle States Self-Study (click here for more information on the self-study process) must report on the status of all programs with respect to developing and implementing ongoing assessment processes. All programs will be asked to characterize the status of their assessment process according to specified criteria, to provide assessment goals and a timeline for meeting them, and to document progress toward establishing a full four-step process (see The Four Steps of Assessment). For programs that do not currently conduct systematic and ongoing assessment within a programmatic context (and for other academic units such as general education), the Middle States Self-Study offers the opportunity to engage assessment at a time when the entire campus will be focused on it. The goals and process of the Self-Study provide a structured framework to guide new assessment initiatives and extend existing efforts. The Self-Study also presents us with a critical challenge: to demonstrate that higher education can effectively respond to calls for accountability from the federal government. Recently, the federal government has stepped up its pressure on higher education to prove that we are meeting the needs and expectations of the public we serve. The Commission on the Future of Higher Education is exploring standardized assessment for higher education, modeled on No Child Left Behind (see Documents for more information). The message from Middle States about assessment: if we don’t take charge of assessment of student learning, someone else will do it for us.
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