Committee On Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness

Committee Guide Addendum

This addendum serves to supply material particular to the Commitee on Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness that is not found in the General Committee Guide. Numbering of sections follows that document.

Introduction
Committee Composition
Committee Transition- mentoring a new chair
Primary power of the Senate and Committee Jurisdiction
Committee tasks
Meeting protocols
New member preparation
Committee chair preparation and tasks
Recommendations and Policy Proposals to the Academic Senate (TOC on general guide is incorrect)
Chairperson’s presentation to the academic Senate
Additional Contributions and/or Activities from specific Committee members – what you need to know – concerns and cautions
Final remarks
Attachment 1- welcome letter to student members
Attachment 2- welcome letter to elected members
Attachment 3- end-of-term thank you letter to participating members

1. Introduction

Welcome to the Committee on Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness. Briefly, the job of the Committee is to:

Review and evaluate summary reports describing initiatives to assess student learning from academic departments, academies, and academic programs of the college;
Review and evaluate documents relating to assessments relating to assessments of institutional effectiveness from all non-academic units of the college;
Make annual reports of progress in assessment of data collection, including:
1. The review of assessment reports from each department/unit of the college;
2. Courses/college units assessed from each department;
3. Summary of assessment data gathered from assessments;
4. Any departmental conclusions drawn and/or actions taken as a result.
Review and evaluate assessment procedures the College undertakes and make recommendations concerning these assessment initiatives to the Academic Senate, in support of principles of shared governance, academic freedom and transparency.

2. Committee Composition

The Committee is composed of nine members of the faculty and is assisted by the Office of Institutional Effectiveness.

The faculty members are elected in the spring to three-year terms by the Academic Senate through its Committee on Committees. The Committee on Committees has adopted the policy that no member of a standing committee serves more than three consecutive terms. The Student Government appoints 1-2 student members, but they are generally not afforded full voting rights.

[See Attachment 1- Welcome letter to Student Members.]

[See Attachment 2- Welcome letter to Elected Members.]

[See Attachment 3- End-of-Term Thank You Letter to Participating Members.]

5. Committee tasks

During the year, the Committee meets six to eight times to review and evaluate annual summary reports of academic and non-academic departments, academies and academic programs. These reports:

Describe initiatives to assess student learning in courses assessed from each academic department;
Relate to assessments of institutional effectiveness from all non-teaching units of the college.

The Committee uses assessment rubrics for Teaching and Non-Teaching departments that track annual reports closely. Program assessment rubrics are being developed as of Spring 2022. Any changes to annual report forms will result in fine tuning the rubrics that the committee uses to better align with the reports submitted to the Office of Institutional Effectiveness. Rubrics contain elements such as:

Strategic objectives
Expected outcomes
Action plans, follow-up, and timeline
Actual outcomes

Rubric scoring could entail scoring of Exemplary, Adequate and Needs Improvement. Committee members will review and evaluate the latest reports and the reports in the year-earlier period to assess if the report lists expected outcomes which address the issues in the previous year’s action plan. The data (quantitative and qualitative) analysis provides a description of the respective results obtained and resolutions. Teaching departments may be made aware of our assessment rubrics.

6. Meeting protocols

The Committee meets on the second Wednesday of every month at 12:10PM. Meetings are called by the Chair (or co-Chairs) and notification is sent to all members, designees and liaisons. Every effort is made to achieve a quorum so that issues can be resolved or moved forward by vote.

The Committee serves as an intermediary party between individual teaching (academic) departments and non-teaching (non-academic) departments and the Administration. The Committee reviews and evaluates summary reports available on the QCC website (give the URL) which describe initiatives to assess student learning from all academic and non-academic departments of the college. Although the faculty members review and evaluate particular academic departments, they generally do NOT review their own departments to avoid any conflicts. This should be made clear by the Chairperson to both the Committee members and their respective department chairpersons. Committee members should not be relied upon as sources of information from or conduits for communications to their departments.

The Committee must prepare an agenda, take minutes of the meetings, and prepare an annual report, all posted to the Committee’s website. Meetings follow Robert’s Rules of Order. When issues of voting must take place within the Committee, even when electing a new Chairperson (or co-Chairpersons), within the meeting members are to vote via closed ballot, initial their vote, and submit their ballot to the Committee Secretary, who at that time can announce the outcome. The ballots are then put in a dated sealed envelope (with a note as to what the vote was for) and forwarded to the Senate Archivist.

7. New Member Preparation

New members are invited to observe, question and participate to become acclimated to the workings of the Committee over a period of a year or so.

To prepare to work on the committee, new members should:

Read the General Committee Guide and this addendum, and familiarize themselves with the pertinent policies and documents.
Speak with the current Committee Chairperson or co-Chairs.
Ask their department chair not to schedule classes for them to teach during the Committee on Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness meeting time and Academic Senate meeting time, the second Tuesday and Wednesday of each month between 12:10 and 2:00 PM.

11. Concerns and Cautions

Committee members are asked, out of deference for their fellow members, to consider the following suggestions:

Make every effort to attend every meeting.
Do not review summary reports of your own academic department to avoid potential conflicts.
Committee members should recognize that their role is to review and evaluate summary reports and documents in order to assess student learning initiatives and assessment of data collection. However, the committee’s role is not to correct the information received.
Committee members should consider enrolling in the Assessment Institute, which enhances faculty members’ ability to create learning outcomes and rubrics for their students.

12. Final Remarks

The Committee on Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness has an important role for the College as it reviews and evaluates annual summaries of academic and non-academic departments.