Assessment Committee
February 7, 2011
Members Present: Justine Shaw (chair), Utpal Goswami, Daniel Bixler, Clyde Johnson,
Roxanne Metz, Karen Nelson, Mary Grace Barrick, Zach DeLoach
Members Absent:
Jennifer Bailey, Melissa Green, Cheryl Tucker, Holly Smith, Erin Wall,
Shannon Sullivan, Jan Tatum, and Toby Green
Updates:
PLO’s and SLO’s: A five-year plan for assessing Program and Student Learning Outcomes needs to be set up. By 2012, two to three outcomes have to be evaluated each year, so that at the end of a five-year period all the outcomes will be assessed. Utpal Goswami,
Vice President of Instruction would like to see SLO’s strictly associated with courses. Dr.
Goswami believes that requiring SLO’s from departments like Student Services will dilute the process, rather, PLO’s will be required of student services, etc. Additionally, student learning outcomes will need to be aligned with program learning outcomes. This may require course outlines of record to be rewritten so the CLO’s match the PLO’s.
Programs that need to be accounted for: associate degrees, as degrees, generate outcomes for certificates in transfer and occupational area, and general education.
Internal language such as “degree and certificate outcomes” can help avoid defining what a “program” is. In the future, faculty can self-determine what a makes up a program. Potential problems that have been identified are whether cross disciplines faculty can agree on outcomes, also some certificates have gone through curriculum with PLOs that might need to be revised.
Three-Year Plan: More planning agenda items have been added to the draft of the three-year plan. A suggested revision to the three-year plan is to incorporate some of the phrases used in the ACCJC rubric. Also tasks on the plan need to be matched up with the bulleted points on the rubric. After changes are made, the newest version of the plan will be circulated as well as posted online.
Training/Retreats:
In relation to accreditation, the focus should be on training because a five-year plan for program and course outcomes has to be identified by this fall. Committee Chair Justine
Shaw expects to have all the planning documents complete this spring and then the
Academic Senate Co-presidents can set dates.
Justine is working with the senate co-presidents to get Saturday retreats organized.
Any retreats scheduled will need to be negotiated with the CRFO and stipends might need to be provided to area coordinators. The plan would be to get the course and

degree outcomes completed. Set up a day for when A.A. and transfer degree faculty meet to determine outcomes and another day for A.S. degree and occupational faculty to meet and define outcomes. Justine will try to get the anthropology courses/program completed and posted as an example.
Additionally, time needs to be set aside for district-wide discussion with options presented instead of a free form discussion. Maybe the District can reinstitute college hour or as an alternative have departments figure out their own time blocks to meet and work on assessment. Also suggested was having a day in the middle of the semester solely focused on assessment.
Convocation:
It would be ideal to have this fall’s Convocation be assessment-focused. The main emphasis would be on align
Membership of Committee:
Committee Chair Justine Shaw will ask the Academic Senate Co-Presidents to appoint new members, since there are several members that have not attended meetings or have communicated with the committee about assessment tasks.