Assessment in Student Affairs
at UWSP
(From: Schuh and Upcraft, Assessment in Student
Affairs, Chapter 1, 1996)
The Rationale for
Assessment in Student Affairs
- Fundamental Necessity
- Accountability questions: do we provide programs and
services that contribute to retention, academic
achievement, student learning, student development, and
other important goals?
- Cost questions: are we providing cost-effective
programs.
- Quality questions: are we providing high quality
programs? How do we define quality? How do we measure
it?
- Access questions: do our programs and services
provide access to underrepresented groups?
- Equity questions
- Accreditation: can we demonstrate that our programs
and services results in positive outcomes for students?
- A Matter of Quality
- How do we define, establish criteria, and measure
quality in our programs and services?
- A Matter of Affordability
- A Matter of Strategic Planning
- Assessment contributions to strategic planning
- Helping define goals and objectives
- Pointing to critical questions or concerns
- Providing baseline data
- Providing feedback about the effectiveness of
long-range plans
- Helpful in the early stages of planning to
identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and
concerns
- A Matter of Policy Development and Decision Making
- A Matter of Politics
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Assessment Defined
- Definition
- Any effort to gather, analyze, and interpret
evidence which describes institutional, departmental,
divisional, or agency effectiveness.
- Example
- Determining whether our admissions criteria predict
subsequent persistence and degree completion;
determining whether information used in psychological
screening is useful in subsequent therapy.
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Evaluation Defined
- Definition
- The use of assessment evidence to improve
institutional, departmental, divisional, or agency
effectiveness.
- Example
- Use of the assessment results as a rationale for
changing evaluation criteria: use of assessment results
on psychological screening to change the screening
process.
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Principles of Good
Practice for Assessment
- The assessment of Student Affairs begins with
educational values
- Assessment is most effective when it reflects an
understanding of organizational outcomes as
multidimensional, integrated, and revealed in performance
over time.
- Assessment works best when it has clear, explicitly
stated goals.
- Assessment requires attention to outcomes, but also to
the processes that lead to them.
- Assessment works best when it is on-going.
- Assessment is most effective when representatives from
across Student Affairs and the institution are involved.
- Assessment makes a difference when it begins with issues
of use and illuminates questions that people really care
about.
- Assessment should be part of a larger set of conditions
that promote change.
- Through assessment, Student Affairs professionals meet
responsibilities of students, the institution, and the
public.
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The Assessment
Process: Some Important Questions
- Why are we doing this assessment?
- What is its basic purpose?
- Why do we need information in the first place?
- Do we need the information for budget priorities,
because we are in a crisis, because we need to satisfy
our clientele, because we need to decide about a policy
or policies, or to make a decision?
- What will we assess?
- What information is to be gathered?
- How will we assess?
- What will be the sources of information?
- Will the information gathered be quantitative,
qualitative, or both?
- What designs are appropriate?
- Who will assess?
- How will the results be analyzed?
- How will the results be communicated and to whom?
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A Comprehensive
Assessment Model
- Keep track of who uses student services, programs, and
facilities.
- Assess the needs of students and other clientele.
- Assess the level of satisfaction with our programs and
services.
- Assess campus environments and student cultures.
- Assess outcomes.
- Benchmark to compare to other institutions.
- Use nationally accepted standards to assess.
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Development of an
Instrument
- Guidelines
- The instrument should be shorter, clear, with good
sequencing of items, with good ease of completion and
return.
- The instrument should appear professional to
respondents.
- The instrument should have clearly stated and
understood items.
- The instrument should have reliability.
- The instrument should have validity.
- The items should have a natural flow and a proper
order.
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Data Collection
- Guidelines
- Include a cover letter that explains the purpose of
and the importance of the study.
- Write the cover letter on letterhead stationary;
have it signed by someone in the area that students will
potentially respond to.
- Personalize the cover letter where possible.
- Offer to send a copy of the results of the study.
- Identify how confidentiality will be insured.
- Offer an incentive, such as participation in a
drawing for a prize
- Estimate the amount of time it will take to complete
the instrument; try to keep it to 10 minutes; pilot-test
the instrument.
- Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope to return
the instruments.
- Identify the name and phone number of someone who
can answer questions.
- Mail the instrument at a “user-friendly” time for
students.
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