Assessment from a national perspective: Where are we, really?

Abstract

Although assessment is a nationwide phenomenon, there is great variance among community colleges in the sctent to which assessment is occumng, faculty are involved, student accomplishments are measured, and assessment results are usedfor improving programs and services.As is clear from the title, the intent of this chapter is to attempt to provide a comprehensive perspective on assessment in community colleges. I have interpreted ths as a charge to deliver a progress report on how far community colleges have come in our efforts to assess student learning and outcomes. It would be interesting, and perhaps useful, to extend this analysis to assessment of institutional effectiveness overall, but such an exercise is outside the scope of this chapter, hence the emphasis on assessment of student outcomes.Over the last several years, I have spent considerable time reading, writing, speaking, and talking to faculty and administrators in community colleges about assessment. It is from these experiences that I will try to provide this overall perspective. First, however, it is important to briefly set the context for this progress report and to note some of the factors that make assessment of student outcomes a much more difficult task for those in two-year colleges than for those in four-year colleges and universities.In addition to the barriers faced by all of us in higher education as we try to implement assessment programs, such as faculty resistance, t y n g to find ways to motivate students to put forth credible effort on assessments of leaming outcomes, and the lack of sufficient resources to do the job, community colleges must also deal with some particularly difficult problems. As I have noted on several previous occasions (Seybert, 1990), assessing student outcomes (and, more generally, institutional effectiveness) is especially difficult for NEW DlRECnONS FOR COMMUNITY COLLEGES, no. 88. Winter 1994 0 Jos5cy-k Publishm 23 24 ASSESSMENT AND TESTING

Assessing Student Learning Outcomes

“…To date, however, there have been very few reports in the literature of assessment of these types of outcomes in community colleges, and several authors have commented on the need for assessing this complex set of outcomes (for example, Alfred, Ewell, Hudgins, and McClenney, 1999;Pascarella and Terenzini, 1991;Seybert, 1994b). Given the frequency with which such outcomes appear and are emphasized in community college mission and values statements, it is clear that much work remains to be done to assess whether students are actually acquiring those skills and abilities.…”

“…Indirect measures, such as follow-up surveys of former career program students, surveys of their current employers, data regarding placement rates of former career program students in the workforce, and employment and wage and salary data from state labor department databases, are very common (see, for example, Seybert, 1994b;Alfred, Ewell, Hudgins, and McClenney, 1999;Stevenson, Walleri, and Japely, 1985;Walleri and Seybert, 1993).…”

“…Alfred, Ewell, Hudgins, and McClenney (1999) identified three core indicators to assess the transfer function: the number of students who transfer in a given year, transfer rate (defined as the percentage of an identified cohort of transfer students who subsequently do, in fact, transfer), and student academic performance after transfer. Other authors have suggested additional measures to assess the transfer function, including surveys of former transfer students (Seybert, 1994b), calculation of a national or statewide transfer rate by aggregating transfer data from as many individual colleges as possible (Nichols, 1989;Preston and Bailey, 1993), and the transferability of courses based on articulation agreements with the transfer institution (Calhoun, 1991). Seybert (1993b) posed four questions to guide the assessment effort: Do transfer students accomplish their community college educational objective?…”

Challenges Facing Community Colleges: Perceptions of Chief Academic Officers in Nine States

“…Indirect measures include surveys of students or employers, placement rates, and employment and wage salary data (Alfred et al, 1999;Seybert, 1994). Direct measures include standardized licensing examinations and simulated clinical examinations (Alfred et al, 1999;Goldman, 1999).…”

ERIC Review: Measuring Success Through Assessment and Testing

“…In only a few cases (including California, Texas, and Washington), does the state maintain a database regarding transfer of students from public community colleges to public four-year institutions. In other states, such as Oregon, statewide arrangements have been made with departments of labor to permit the systematic exchange of data regarding employment of former students (Seybert, 1994).…”