The relationship between the direction of learning and the
assessment of learning presents two temptations that often lead to serious
errors in assessment. First and
most seriously, there is the temptation to confuse educational inputs with
learning outcomes. A second
problem, particularly with teacher-directed learning, arises from the temptation
to overvalue the directing facilitator’s personal conception of learning
objectives.
The first requirement for quality assurance in the
assessment (according to Whitaker, Assessing Learning, p.6) is the
identification of some rules for describing acceptable outcomes.
The second requirement is to identify some basic practices that will lead
to the sound measurement and evaluation of those outcomes.
Assessment is a process of gathering information for the
purpose of improving the functioning of the college, staff, faculty and
students. “Functioning refers to
the broad social purposes of a college or university: to facilitate student learning and development, to advance
the frontier of knowledge, and to the contribute to the community and the
society.”
--- Alexander W. Astin
The assessment design for the LCO Ojibwa Community College evolved as a
plan inclusive of multiple measures of student achievement and a plan which
takes into account the cultural heritage and diversity of the LCOOCC.
The student academic achievement plan for the Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwa
Community College is a flexible and continuously improbable document.
It must remain flexible to meet the needs of student learning.
Empirically measuring student leaning and achievement is not an easy
task. The faculty of the LCO Ojibwa Community College is grappling
with the task, which will demonstrate accountability and credibility of the
college. Thomas A. Angelo and K.
Patricia Cross stated it best when they wrote, “A major problem encountered by
the assessment movement, however, is that faculty members are not fully involved
in the process, and the result of institutional assessment are rarely used to
make a difference in the classroom,”
(Angelo & Cross, PP XIII).
Further, assessing student learning impinges on many different operations
of the institution, and this networking must be integrated into the procedure of
assessment. Gathering student
assessment and/or classroom assessment data provides much needed information for
the institutional assessment to determine whether the college is meeting its
goals.
“Classroom Assessment helps individual college teachers obtain useful
feedback on what, how much, and how well the students are learning. Faculty can then use this information to refocus their
teaching to help students make their learning more efficient and more
effective,” (Angelo & Cross, 1993, pp. 3).
Feedback of the assessment outcomes to students, faculty and the
community further necessitates that a procedure and process be facilitated.
Finally, outcome data must be compiled, analyzed and reported. Hopefully, the report of the outcome will be meaningful to
student, faculty and community. It
must inform the learning process, speak to accountability and mandate
administrators and faculty members to make decisions that improve the learning
and teaching at the LCO Ojibwa Community College.
The assessment plan itself will be evaluated annually. The evaluation results of the student assessment plan will
determine additions and/or deletions of activities, data collection, treatment,
and the phases (time table) of the design.