Marietta College Assessment Committee

Streamlining Academic Program Assessment,
2006-2007 Academic Year

In keeping with recommendations offered by the Higher Learning Commission as part of Marietta College's 2006 affirmation of accreditation and the 2005-2006 Assessment Committee's internal review of the College's academic program assessment activities, the College's academic program assessment efforts will be streamlined as described below.

Academic program assessment reports will be submitted once every four years. The schedule for reporting will parallel the Planning Committee's program review schedule, with assessment reports being submitted one year prior to the program's scheduled program review. The Assessment Committee will evaluate the assessment reports and provide written feedback.  Academic programs will respond to the Assessment Committee’s feedback report in writing by the end of the academic year.  At that time, the Assessment Committee will forward to the Planning Committee a summative statement of each program’s assessment process.

Two advantages emerge from this streamlined process. First, in any given academic year, only a small number of assessment reports would be submitted to the Assessment Committee allowing all Committee members to review each report, thereby strengthening the review process. Further, academic program assessment will become an integral aspect of program review.  Simply put, one of the requirements of program review will be that a program has in place an acceptable assessment process.

For this streamlined approach to academic program assessment to be effective, it is critical that all programs recognize assessment strategies must be in play and that quality assessment data be collected annually; only the reporting requirements have changed.

General Timeline of Events

SUMMER (or previous Spring):  Department Chairs write Assessment Reports
EARLY FALL: Assessment Reports submitted to Assessment Committee
LATE FALL: Department Chairs receive evaluation of Assessment Report from Assessment Committee
SPRING: Departments bring in outside consultant
LATE SPRING: Department Chairs submit one-page follow-up report to Assessment Committee
SUMMER (or previous Spring): Department chairs write Program Review
EARLY FALL: Program Reviews submitted to Planning Committee; Assessment Committee submits final evaluation of program’s assessment practices to Planning Committee
LATE FALL: Planning Committee responds to departments and submits recommendations for budget planning

The following reporting schedule reorganizes program review and assessment along divisional lines and is based on the above general timeline.  The alterations required a delay in the program review process of one year. At present, all graduate programs are reviewed separately from their undergraduate equivalents and little has been done to allow for the alignment of internal reviews with external reviews conducted by any outside accrediting agencies.

 

Year Program Review Report
(due in early fall)		 Assessment Report
(due in early fall)		 Notes GEN ED
Assessment

2006-2007

 English, HPPSR, Sports Medicine, MSPAS   Last Round of current review cycle College Wide: Writing Competency (W), Global Issues & Diversity (M), Diversity (X)

2007-2008

   Fine Arts & Humanities: Music, Art & Graphic Design, Theatre, Modern Lang., English, HPPSR   Fine Arts & Humanities: Historical Perspectives (P), Fine Arts (R), Literature (L)

2008-2009

 Fine Arts & Humanities: Music, Art & Graphic Design, Theatre, Modern Languages Social Science, Business & Leadership: Leadership, Education, Psychology, EMA, Comm. & Media Studies English & HPPSR (reviewed in 2006-7) complete Assessment only to align with new system Social Science, Business & Leadership: Social Analysis (Y), Leadership & Ethics (K)

2009-2010

 Social Science, Business & Leadership: Leadership, Education, Psychology, EMA, Comm. & Media Studies

Sciences: Petr Eng & Geology, Physics, Biology & Env. Sci., Chemistry, Math & Comp. Sci., Sports Medicine

   Sciences: Scientific Inquiry (B, C), Quantitative Reasoning (Q)

2010-2011

 Sciences: Petr Eng & Geology, Physics, Biology & Env. Sci., Chemistry, Math & Comp. Sci., Sports Medicine Graduate and other:  MCM, MAP, MAEd, MSPAS,  MALL, FYSE, Gender, Honors, Inv. Studies, Study Abroad   College Wide: Writing Competency (W), Global Issues & Diversity (M), Diversity (X)

2011-2012

 Graduate and other:  MCM, MAP, MAEd, MSPAS, MALL, FYSE Fine Arts & Humanities: Music, Art & Graphic Design, Theatre, Modern Lang., English, Hist Phil, & Rel. Political Science, which already reports separately has been grouped with S, B & L Fine Arts & Humanities: Historical Perspectives (P), Fine Arts (R), Literature (L)

2012-2013

 Humanities & Fine Arts: Music, Art & Graphic Design, Theatre, Modern Lang., English, Hist Phil & Rel Social Science, Business & Leadership: Leadership, Education, Psychology, EMA, Comm. & Media Studies, Poli Sci   Social Science, Business & Leadership: Social Analysis (Y), Leadership & Ethics (K)

 

Notes

Note #1 It is absolutely essential that the FINDINGS of program assessment not be used to evaluate the "value" of a program. Academic assessment must remain an internal measure used by programs to improve student learning, NOT an external device used to gauge a program's worth. This distinction MUST be maintained in order for honest, meaningful assessment to take place. However, a program's assessment process will become a part of program review and, accordingly, actions taken by a program as a result of their assessment process will constitute part of the program review carried out by the Planning Committee.

Note #2 Some academic programs, currently Gender Studies, Honors, and Investigative Studies, while not required to submit program review reports to the Planning Committee, are required to submit academic program assessment reports to the Assessment Committee, according to the schedule above.

 

Last Updated: May 15, 2008