Core Assessment Guidelines (Assessment Cycle 2015-2020)
When a Core Objective (CO) comes up in the current 5-year cycle for assessment, a department will
collect from its faculty assessment reports – using templates for the Initial Form, available at
www.unr.edu/assessment/core - on all of its courses satisfying that CO and deliver those reports
and supplementary documents (see item 3 below) to the Director of Assessment & Accreditation
(DAA). After that initial academic year of assessment data collection, the department will collect
from its faculty and submit to the DAA follow-up commentary reports (Follow-Up Form, available
at the URL given above) for its courses satisfying the original CO (see item 2 below). The DAA will
store these reports online for the Core Assessment Committee (CAC) and relevant Core Objective
Committees to review.
Procedures for Core Assessment
1. If a course satisfies more than 1 CO, its instructor of record is free to assess all COs for his/her
report (rather than waiting until later in the 5-year cycle).
2. Faculty teaching a course that satisfies a CO will provide a completed, data-driven assessment
report (using the Initial Form) during the year of assessment for that CO. For the remainder of the
four-year cycle, faculty will provide commentary on any significant changes to these courses,
particularly revised SLOs (using the Follow-Up Form). If the relevant Core Committee expresses in
their Response to Initial Form any concerns regarding the number/percentage of students failing to
meet SLOs in the course or regarding the quality of student work (see item 4 below), the faculty
member will be asked to report on modifications as part of these commentary reports. When the
course is taught by a different faculty member, previous assessment reports will be provided to this
faculty member, but a new assessment report will be required.
3. Faculty should submit a completed assessment report (Initial Form), assignment(s) that serves as
the performance indicator, student work collected and assessed for that assignment, assessment
tool(s) used (e.g., rubrics), and syllabus to a designated departmental representative by the 8th week
of the fall or spring semester following the course (in the case of summer courses, reports will be
due in the fall semester).
a. The CAC encourages assessing the work of the entire student population whenever
possible; however, when this is not feasible, faculty should rely on random sampling of student
work. In a class with fewer than 100 students, 10 should be selected for assessment, and in a class
with more than 100 students, at least 10% of the population should be selected for assessment. For
Core assessment conducted at a department level (Core Writing, Core Math, and Core Humanities),
a department representative may submit an aggregate report, so long as at least 10% of the total
student population is represented. In all cases, the DAA will collect and store online these reports
and supplementary documents and anonymized student work for the appropriate Core Committee
to review.
b. The CAC will provide guidelines defining exceeding, meeting, and failing to meet an SLO
for faculty using Core Board-approved rubrics. If faculty members use their own criteria or rubrics,
they will be asked to explain in their assessment reports their definitions of exceeding, meeting, and
failing to meet SLOs.
4. The CAC will coordinate with faculty, advise when necessary, and provide models, as well as
gauge the effectiveness of assessment activities, but Core Committees will act as oversight
committees in gauging faculty members’ standards for students exceeding/meeting/failing to meet
SLOs and the quantitative measurement of SLOs. They will also have the opportunity to review
student work. In this manner, Core courses will not be assessed solely by parties invested in their
continued Core status (faculty and departments offering the courses).