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, effective immediately.
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 two years prior to the program's scheduled program review. The Assessment Committee will determine whether the assessment report reflects quality academic program assessment taking place. If not, the program would be required to re-visit their assessment activities, in consultation with a liaison from the Assessment Committee, and re-submit their report the year prior to their scheduled review by the Planning Committee.
Two advantages emerge from this streamlined process. First, in any given academic year, only five to six assessment reports would be submitted to the Assessment Committee allowing all members of the Assessment Committee to review the reports, 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 would be that an assessment report had been completed and found acceptable by the Assessment Committee. Each program should include the Committee's feedback form in their program review document in order to demonstrate that they are conducting quality assessment within their own programs.
For this streamlined approach to academic program assessment to be effective, it is critical that all programs recognize that their assessment strategies must be in play and that quality assessment data be collected annually; only the reporting requirements have changed.
During the fall of 2006, the Assessment Committee will develop a new evaluation form to be used by the Committee to review four-year reports. This form will be made available at the earliest possible date. In order to provide programs with ample time to meet the expectations of the Committee, academic program assessment reports for the 2006-2007 cycle (see table below for affected departments) will be due Jan. 22, 2007. Beginning in the 2007-2008 academic year, all academic program assessment reports will be due at the beginning of the fall semester (specifically or about August 31).
Using the Planning Committee's current schedule for program review, the schedule for academic program assessment reports is given below:
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 attached chart reorganizes program review and assessment along divisional lines and based on the above general timeline. The alterations require a delay in the program review process of one year. At present the chart calls for all graduate programs are reviewed separately from their undergraduate equivalents and little has been done to allow for the alignment of reviews with outside accrediting agencies (The Science & Social Science divisions have been switched to align with what we thought was Education’s accreditation submission.).
| 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
* 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 #1 Some academic programs are currently not in compliance with the College's assessment strategy and as a result the Provost is requiring those programs to submit an assessment report this year and continue to do so annually until quality academic program assessment activities are in place. Those programs will be contacted directly by the Assessment Committee and linked with a Committee liaison for consultation on an as needed basis.
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: October 3, 2007