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Committee On Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness

Annual Report for 2018-19

Committee on Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness Annual Report

Committee Members: Bjorn Berkhout, Chairperson; Barbara Rome, Secretary; Raul Armendariz,  Christine (Mi-Seon) Kim, Whan Ki Lee, Manuel Martinez, Linda Meltzer, Amos Orlofsky, Maurizio Santoro,

President’s Designee: Arthur Corradetti

The committee met on the following dates:

  • September 12, 2018
  • October 24, 2018
  • November 11, 2018
  • December 5, 2018
  • February 20, 2019
  • March 20, 2019
  • April 10, 2019
  • May 16, 2019

Part I: Steering Committee Recommendations

1. Review reports of assessments forwarded by various units of the college.

  • The committee examined and evaluated the 21 year-end teaching reports submitted by the departments.

 

2. All committee members attend the college’s Assessment Institute.

  • Professor Martinez attended the Assessment Institute.

3. Continue revision of revamped “Institutional Effectiveness: Strategic Planning and Assessment” webpage.

  • The redesign of the Institutional Effectiveness: Strategic Planning and Assessment page met the goal of making the assessment process more transparent to both faculty and outside evaluators.
    • The new design structures the website’s ‘wire hangers’ around the different levels of assessment, which has made it much clearer where and how planning and assessment are being done.
    • The narrative descriptions where updated to provide clearer descriptions of the different levels of planning and assessment.
    • The relevant hyperlinks to supporting documents and reports were added in order to help the assessment committee more effectively and efficiently perform the charges given to them.

4. Stay informed on and participate in the Middle States self-study by meeting with Middle States Working Group 5: Educational Effectiveness, and/or other relevant groups.

  • The committee prepared for a requested meeting between our committee and the Middle States Accreditation Team. Four members of the committee met with the Middle States Accreditation Team: Bjorn Berkhout, Barbara Rome, Amos Orlofsky and Maurizio Santoro. The meeting was informative and detailed, and ultimately the college received its accreditation.

5. Continue to monitor the quality of the assessment component of year-end teaching and non-teaching reports, measuring the degree to which sending out the rubrics to department heads in advance of report-writing helps this process.

  • The committee observed how the culture of assessment is beginning to take hold across the campus. 50% of the submitted reports scored ‘exemplary’ on the rubric, 34% ‘adequate’ and 16% scored ‘needing improvement’.  The rubric seemed to have the most positive effect on section E. 3a and 3b, which cover the departments’ course assessment procedures and results.

6. Monitor any improvements in the assessment of Program Review in the year-end reports, based on the revised rubric now in place.  

  • While individual course assessment is improving across the college, it was noted that the narrative descriptions of the departments’ assessment procedures often lacked detail. The weakest section of the report generally is section 2b, which covers follow up to action plans developed in the program reviews.

Part II: General Education Report on Gen Ed Outcomes

  • Dr. Ian Beckford presented the General Education Report on Gen Ed Outcomes to the committee for feedback and commentary, keeping the committee informed of ongoing assessment processes for the Gen Ed Outcomes. Dr. Beckford also presented the Pathways Outcomes to our General Education Outcomes document to the committee summarizing the process of how the Gen Ed Outcomes and the Pathways Common Core is now in a targeted cyclical process of assessment.

Part III: Future Work for the Committee: Goals, Plans and Recommendations

The following goals where developed during the year for the committee that continue to strength the culture of assessment being developed at QCC.

  • The committee would like to begin evaluating the Program Reviews
  • The committee also would also like to use the newly developed curriculum maps for each degree program by linking course assessments directly to the listings of required courses.
    • This will allow the committee (as well as the departments themselves), to quickly and comprehensively see which classes in the degree programs have been assessed when evaluating the program reviews.
    • This will also help in evaluating the assessment of student learning when a degree is shared between different departments, as it will give a comprehensive overview of all the courses within the degree no matter which department offers it.
  • The committee recommends further follow up of the Assessment Institute in order to monitor who continues to do assessment after completion of the institute.
  • The committee recommends that each department establish a department assessment coordinator. The coordinator, ideally a faculty member who has completed the Assessment Institute, would serve as the department’s contact person on assessment issues.
  • The committee recommends that year-end department report templates be specifically tailored by placing action plan items developed in the program reviews directly into the relevant department’s template.
    • This will add a degree of transparency that should allow both the different departments and the committee to easily and comprehensively track when and how action plan items are being addressed and met. 
  • The committee would like to continue to develop and share materials that provide guidance to the department for their year-end reports. This includes the rubrics/check lists used by the committee as well as developing a model to show what an exemplary report would look like.
  • The committee will keep the assessment handbook up to date. The handbook is a valuable asset for new committee members and helps insure a continuity of purpose as old members leave and new ones join.

The committee would like to continue to discuss implementation of the following:

  • The committee would like to find a balance between the following evaluation procedures:
    • A cyclical schedule to assure that all reports (teaching and non-teaching year end reports and program reviews) are evaluated
    • A more targeted review process where departments that need improvement in their reports would be evaluated on a more regular basis than those that routinely score high
  • The committee would like to help standardize the terms and language used in the assessment process across the college and departments since alternate terms can cause confusion.

Part IV: Committee Election Results

Dr. Berkhout became the Chair of the Music Department as of July 1st 2019 and therefore has stepped down from his service on the committee and will need to be replaced.

Vote for Chair and Secretary of committee

  1. Chair: motion to elect Manual Martinez as interim chair until September meeting when all committee members are present made by B. Berkhout and seconded by B. Rome, unanimously voted in.
  2. Motion to elect Barbara Rome as interim secretary until September meeting when all committee members are present made by B. Berkhout and seconded by A. Orlofsky, unanimously voted in.

Part V: Acknowledgements

The committee is extremely grateful to Dean Arthur Corriadetti for his suggestions and guidance during year and specifically regarding the Middle States accreditation visit. The committee also thanks Dr. Ian Beckford for his valuable insights and work on the General Education Report on Gen Ed Outcomes. The committee acknowledges the hard work and dedication of the committee members Bjorn Berkhout, Barbara Rome, who excelled as our secretary, Christine (Mi-Seon) Kim, Whan Ki Lee, Manuel Martinez, Linda Meltzer, Amos Orlofsky and Maurizio Santoro all of whom showed devotion to continuing the culture of assessment that is being established across the college. Finally, the committee is also very thankful to Bjorn Berkhout, Barbara Rome, Amos Orlofsky and Maurizio Santoro for their meeting with the Middle States Accreditation Team.

Respectively submitted:

Bjorn Berkhout

2018-2019 Chair of the Academic Senate Committee on Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness.

Committee Links

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