By the end of the first week, the new assessment
coordinator wrote a memo addressed to the academic dean that detailed her
preliminary analysis of the 1999 Assessment Plan as it had been written. A copy
of the memo is included in the appendix to this report. Since then the
assessment coordinator has continued to analyze the 1999 Plan more critically.
Subsequently, much of her analyses constitute the bulk of this Monitoring
Report, written with collaboration with the academic dean.
The 1999 Assessment Plan (hereafter called the 1999 Plan)
had a sound and well-developed conceptual framework, with general education
assessment rubrics keyed to eleven student outcomes identified by faculty.
According to the narrative contained in the 1999 Assessment Plan, faculty met
intensively over a semester to discuss and revise campus efforts to assess
student achievement. The product of this focused process was the 1999 Assessment
Plan. General education assessment matrices keyed to specific rubrics were
included in the Plan’s appendix. Program assessment on the other hand was less
evenly developed.
Across the entire 1999 Plan, the assessment of student
outcomes resides in the individual courses. The frequently utilized
course-embedded assessment model requires faculty involvement in the design and
implementation of assessment activities. Advocates of course-embedded assessment
say it has the advantage of being unobtrusive to the students and tied to actual
student performances as designated in the syllabi. Authentic assessment, a
synonym for course-embedded assessment, addresses the frequent complaint that
students do not take non-graded performance events and low stakes standardized
exams seriously (Wiggins, 1990). Course-embedded assessment has students
demonstrate that they have met the course outcomes tied to course objectives and
an assignment or series of assignments or classroom performances. Because the
LCO College assessment plan consists of the eleven general education outcomes
distributed across the body of required and elective courses, the
course-embedded model by definition did require considerable coordination to
stay on track. The 1999 Plan took this into account with the designation of an
individual charged with coordination of assessment in addition to other duties.
From this preliminary analysis, the Monitoring Report will now move to the following sub sections: the coordination of the assessment plan, the placement segment of the assessment plan, assessment of general education, program outcome assessment, employer and alumni surveys, student involvement.