Ready, Set, Go!
Institutional Excellence
through Ongoing Program
Assessment
Convocation Activities
Central Virginia Community College
August 16, 2012
Deborah Driscoll, Ph.D.
Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness and Planning, Lynchburg College
Intro
• Issues in Higher Education
• Big Ideas in program assessment
• Clarify the purpose
• Measure what matters
• Use the results
• Your program
Role of Higher Education
• Educated Citizenry
• Economic Competitiveness
• Workforce Development
• Research and Innovation
• Individual Promise of Self-sufficiency
• Public Good
Chief Academic Officers at Public
2 year institutions:
Top 5 challenges / issues
• 94% Improving retention and degree completions
• 89% Maintaining the quality of academic programs
• 89% Improving academic performance of
underprepared students
• 76% Addressing budget shortfalls that affect
academic programs and services
• 58% Supporting / nurturing junior faculty
Issues
Issues
Undergraduate Student Aid by Source
and Type (in Billions), 2010-11
SOURCE:
The College
Board,
Trends
in Student Aid 2011, Figure 2A.
Trends
in Student
Aid 2011,
College
Board
http://trends.collegeboard.org/student_aid/
Cost Shifting
American Institutes for Research-Delta
Cost Project
Consumer Information
• College Navigator
http://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator
• VCCS webpage – Fall CVCC enrollment 2011
• 5461 headcount, 2763 FTE
• 73% of students are part time
• 40% in transfer programs, 23% in technical
programs; 37% in unclassified
How are we meeting the call
for accountability?
• External reporting – IPEDS and SCHEV
• 4 year institutions – Rankings
• FORBES Best Colleges: Methodology claim as
built around what matters most to students:
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•
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Quality of teaching
Career prospects
Completion rates
Manageable debt
• http://www.forbes.com/top-colleges/
Teaching
Learning
• Spellings Commission (2006)
• Reauthorization - Higher Education
Opportunity Act
• All six regional accreditation bodiesSACSCOC
• American Association of Community Colleges
• Specialized accreditation
Aspen Institute College Excellence
Program
• Completion Outcomes
• Labor Market Outcomes
•
• Learning Outcomes: Institutional practices and
policies that result in strong and improving
levels of student learning in courses, within
programs, and college-wide level.
• Equitable Outcomes
CHEA Awards -- Effective Practice:
Student Learning Outcomes
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2012 Rio Salado College (AZ)
2011 Miami Dade College (FL)
2009 Delaware Technical & Community College,(DE)
2007 Mesa Community College, (AZ)
2006 The Community College of Baltimore County, (MD)
• Articulating expected outcomes for an institution, program or major.
• Providing evidence of success with regard to outcomes.
• Informing the public (constituents external to an institution) about
expectations and success with regard to outcomes.
• Using outcomes for institutional improvement: evidence that
outcomes have benefited the institution, program or major.
http://www.chea.org/chea%20award/CHEA_Awards_All.html
American Association of
Community Colleges
Voluntary Framework of Accountability
• “Lack of commonly accepted performance
measures has often led to misperceptions and
frequently an underestimation of community
college effectiveness and contributions. It has
also limited the ability of the institutions to
identify problems and to set goals for
improvement of outcomes.”
• Student Learning Outcomes included as a
demonstration of quality
Excellence
• Quality Faculty and Staff
• Student learning and accomplishments
• Effective Programs and Services
• Completions
• Graduation Rates
• Cost-efficient delivery of services
• Mission accomplishment
Central Virginia Community College is an
accessible, comprehensive, public, two-year,
higher education institution that is dedicated to:
• Providing open, flexible, affordable, quality learning opportunities
for personal growth and the acquisition of knowledge and skills
necessary for productive and meaningful life,
• Providing general education, transfer, applied science, certificate,
and diploma programs,
• Determining and addressing the training needs of business,
industry, and government to benefit the service area,
• Supporting workforce and economic development through
participation in regional organizations and training for new and/or
expanding businesses.
• Providing support services for education, training, technology
infrastructure, and workforce development.
Accreditation
• Southern Association of College and
Schools Commission on Colleges
• Organization of peers
• Mission …quality assurance
• Reaffirmation every ten years
• “Principles of Accreditation: Foundation
for Quality Enhancement”
Designing
Courses for
Significant
Learning
Retrieved on 3-24-2011 from http://www.designlearning.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Self-Directed-Guide..2.pdf
Your Program
1. 3 Big Ideas
2. Situational factors – students
Institutional Effectiveness
Educational programs (3.3.1.1)
The institution identifies…
• expected outcomes, to include student
learning outcomes
• assesses the extent to which it achieves
these outcomes, and
• provides evidence of improvement based
on analysis of the results
Vocabulary
Purpose & Goals
Learning
Outcomes
Objectives
Accounting Operations,
College Credit Certificate
• Manage business information using
spreadsheet software.
• Prepare basic financial statements.
• Demonstrate effective business
communication skills.
• Analyze business and financial information
for internal decision making.
http://valenciacollege.edu/instassess/loa/documents/accountingtechnology.pdf
Your Program
1. 3 Big Ideas
2. Situational factors – students
3. End of program: 3 ‘things’ students
should know or be able to do
4. What student work will you examine to
know how well students have reached
the learning outcomes?
Plan
Act
Do
Check
2011 Survey of Academic VPs
Test or Survey
All
Public Community Private ForBacc.
College
Bacc. Profit
National Survey of Student Engagement
or Community College Survey
59.1% 64.4%
44.8%
67.7% 19.4%
ETS Major Field Tests
23.9% 35.6%
4.0%
41.3% 3.2%
Collegiate Learning Assessment
19.2% 28.9%
2.7%
24.4% 0.0%
Collegiate Assessment of
Academic Proficiency
15.8% 17.8%
18.9%
12.1% 3.2%
ETS Proficiency Profile for General
Education
8.9% 17.8%
3.5%
13.0% 12.9%
College Senior Survey (UCLA)
6.8%
0.3%
13.5% 0.0%
of Student Engagement
0.0%
Source: Source: http://www.insidehighered.com/news/survey/mixed-grades-survey-provosts
Plan Mission & Goals
Adjust Outcomes,
Objectives , and Measures
Act
Decide actions
Complete report
Implement actions
Check
Do
Implement
activities
Collect
data for Measures
Analyze results
Note improvements and
challenges
Learning Outcomes Assessment
• Focus on the purpose
• Create a meaningful process
• Assess to learn
• Keep it simple
• Emphasize analysis and use of results above all else
• Acknowledge that assessment is messy, imperfect,
and always incomplete
• Celebrate good work
Nunley, C., Bers, T, Manning, T. (July 2011). Learning Outcomes Assessment in Community
Colleges. Occasional Paper #10, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment
Ready
• Clarify purpose
• Determine Outcomes
Set
• Design data collection
• Collect data
• Analyze results
Go
• Make plans for improvement
• Implement action
Plan
Act
Do
Check
Aspen Prize - 2013 Finalists
Community College Excellence
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Lake Area Technical Institute, Watertown, SD
Miami Dade College, Miami,
Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Perkinston, MS
Mott Community College, Flint, MI
Northeast Iowa Community College-Calmar, Calmar, IA
Santa Barbara City College, Santa Barbara, CA
Southwest Texas Junior College, Uvalde, TX
Valencia College, Orlando, FL
Walla Walla Community College, Walla Walla, WA
West Kentucky Community and Technical College, Paducah, KY
Examples of Program Learning
Outcomes
• http://valenciacollege.edu/instassess/loa/
outcomes_AS.cfm
• Valencia College – community college in
Florida, 2011 winner of the Aspen Prize