Red Flags and Quick Tips for Creating Assessment Items
Purpose of Assessment:
 To improve student learning and development
 To enhance the effectiveness of the institution in achieving its mission
 “You don’t have to be bad to get better”
Student Learning Outcomes:
 What should students know, think, and/or be able to do when they complete the program?
o “Students will be able to…”
 Red Flag- Inputs Instead of Outputs
o Examples:
 “We will enroll better students”
 “We will get more money for better lab equipment”
 Red Flag- Activities
o Examples:
 “All students will engage in a research experience”
 “50% of program graduates will attend graduate school”
 Red Flag- Satisfaction
o Examples:
 “Students will highly rate their major course instructors”
 “Alumni will indicate satisfaction with the program”
 Red Flag- Items That Are Not Assessable
o Examples:
 “Students will appreciate the life of the mind”
 “Students will understand physics”
 Red Flag- Grades
o How does knowing the grade distribution for a class help you to improve student
learning or development?
 Tip- Use Bloom’s Taxonomy (action verbs)
o Outcomes should be college level
 Tip- Outcomes should be important to the units/entities
o Easier to get faculty and staff to sign on if they believe it will actually help
 Good Examples:
o “Students will be able to analyze economic issues or problems using
supply/demand analysis techniques”
o “Students will be able to apply anthropological theory to the analysis of a
linguistic or cultural phenomenon”
Measures:
 Red Flag- Only Indirect Measures
o Surveys, Focus Groups, Exit Interviews, etc.
 Red Flag- Measures Not Related to Outcomes
o General Rule of Thumb- A person who works in higher education but not in the
discipline/area in question should be able to understand how the measure relates
to the outcome
 Good Examples:
o Specific exam questions, student papers/essays, laboratory projects or
assignments, etc.
o In General- Any student work (artifacts) that demonstrate student achievement of
the outcome
Results/Findings:
 Red Flag- Lack of Results
o Especially over multiple cycles
 Red Flag- Lack of Analysis of the Findings
o Can indicate a lack of engagement
Use of Results:
 Red Flag- No Improvements Over Multiple Cycles
o “Students did fine so there were no changes necessary”
 Red Flag- Changes Unrelated to the Findings, Measures, and Outcomes
 FAQ- “Do we have to make big changes every year?”
o No, but if the only changes year after year are just to the assessment process itself,
that may be a problem
Other Potential Red Flags:
 The process appears episodic
o “We’ve just started a new process so we have only one cycle”
 No evidence of faculty engagement
 Unrepresentative sampling
o Sampling size too small
o No discussion of why chosen sample is representative
 Units and entities varying widely in terms of assessment maturity
 Some units have not turned in an assessment report
 Unit just has a new date on an old report