Academic Achievement Assessment Committee
Report for 2002-2003
September 2003

Purpose: This report describes the composition, activities, and progress of the University of Wisconsin – Parkside’s Academic Achievement Assessment Committee (AAAC) for the academic year 2002-2003.The AAAC’s formal charge is to develop and monitor procedures for the assessment of a variety of student learning outcomes or skills/abilities based on the expectations, requirements, and needs of a number of different stakeholders. Included are quantitative and verbal skills assessment as required by the UW System. Also included are the general education learning outcomes of effective written communication, effective oral communication, critical/analytical thinking, and ability to work effectively in teams. Finally, assessment within the majors, although ultimately the responsibility of departments or programs, is supported and monitored by the AAAC.

The AAAC was created by the UW – Parkside Faculty Senate in the spring of 1992 to implement and provide “…oversight of assessment of student learning …including

(1) ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness of instruction in verbal and quantitative skills and in general education;

(2) making recommendations for improving these programs on the basis of the AAAC’s evaluation;

(3) supporting other assessment activities on campus such as program reviews and surveys of alumni, graduating seniors, etc.;

(4) identifying and recommending to the Faculty Senate changes in ongoing assessment programs, should the need arise.”

In addition, the faculty senate provided the following charge:

“The assessment committee shall make recommendations for changes in instruction in verbal and quantitative skills and in general education. The recommendations shall be contained in an annual report provided each fall to department chairs, the Faculty Senate, the deans, the Vice Chancellor, the Director of Advising, and the Director of Educational Support Services. (UWPF 4.23 (4)).”

It is the AAAC’s intent, in concurrence with the administration of the UW – Parkside, that the activities of this committee become one part of a variety of activities designed to improve the quality of teaching and learning within the university community. An addition to the assessment of student learning, these activities include program assessment, evaluation of teaching, merit review, and post-tenure review.

(Note that these activities are summarized in UW – Parkside’s consolidated review calendar.)

Committee Members: Members of the AAAC during the 2002-2003 academic year were Karen Crooker (Assistant Professor of Human Resource Management); Larry Duetsch (Professor of Economics; Director of General Education); Tim Fossum (Professor of Computer Science) Mary Kay Schleiter (Associate Professor of Sociology); Mary Lenard (Assistant Professor of English); Bill Blanchard (Director of Institutional Research and Assessment Services; and Jane Pinnow (Senior Lecturer in Mathematics). [Note that Larry Duetsch retired in December of 2002.]

Overview of Assessment

The AAAC has developed and monitored/supervised a number of activities since its creation in 1992. These activities are summarized in the assessment matrix available from the chair of AAAC. Each academic year, the committee focuses on one or more of these activities, which are intended to

(1) Assist with the identification and/or assessment of student learning outcomes at several levels, including General Education outcomes and outcomes in majors/programs;

(2) Collect and report back to the UW System data on accountability indicators in the areas of quantitative and verbal skills;

(3) Report assessment results and research on assessment to UW – Parkside faculty, staff, and students, as well as to other important stakeholders;

(4) Provide feedback on assessment to UW – Parkside stakeholders for continuous improvement in the quality of the educational process.

For the 2002-2003 academic year, the AAAC’s primary focus was the assessment of learning outcomes in selected majors. The AAAC had previously (during 2000-2001) worked with virtually all departments to discuss their progress in implementing their assessment activities and in using information collected to review their programs and curricula. The AAAC also focused on reporting assessment progress to UW – Parkside faculty and staff.

During the 2000-2001 academic year, the AAAC began the process of meeting with faculty and instructional staff from every department/program in the university. The Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and the chair of AAAC (along with available AAAC members) met with approximately two dozen departments to review their assessment activities. This process worked exceedingly well, as it became obvious that many departments/programs had made substantial progress with their assessment activities. The AAAC decided to make this an ongoing activity, where selected departments will be revisited each academic year. During the 2002-2003 academic year, the AAAC met with faculty and instructional staff from the following departments: Business, HPEA, Mathematics, Psychology, Economics, Sociology/Anthropology, and Business. Although the departments were selected somewhat randomly, they did represent a mix in terms of experience in assessment.

The Sociology/Anthropology Department has an excellent, detailed assessment plan and has made some specific curricular changes as a result of information reviewed. The HPEA Department (which did not admit majors until fall of 2000) developed an assessment plan for their learning outcomes; they have done an outstanding job of identifying learning outcomes and plan to use several different methods for collecting data about these outcomes.

In the Business Department, faculty have developed – and are actually using – several methods for collecting data. Faculty and instructional staff are asked, each semester, to submit data about student performance electronically, using a template developed by the current department chair. Also, in the spring of 2003, several hundred undergraduate and graduate business majors completed a web-based survey which including a number of items about specific departmental learning outcomes. Data from both of these sources is extracted, it will be periodically reviewed by the department’s newly-created Core Curriculum Council.

In the Psychology Department, faculty had decided to schedule a faculty retreat during the summer of 2003 to examine their student learning outcomes vis-à-vis student needs and faculty expertise. They have also begun to discuss student portfolios and are designing an alumni survey.

In the Economics Department, the department has created a faculty subcommittee on assessment and has begun to develop portfolios for both individual majors and minors and for courses. They have also made some curriculum changes as a result of ongoing data collection.

Faculty in the Mathematics Department continue to discuss both additional learning outcomes and various ways to collect data about those outcomes.

In sum, all of the programs visited by the AAAC have made substantial progress in assessment. Some have significantly revamped their plans and have spent much time discussing learning outcomes; they now will collect and review data about those outcomes. Others have well-designed, complete plans already and have gone through the process of collecting information and evaluating that information. Faculty and instructional staff should be commended for their continuing efforts in assessment, particularly in view of the challenge of finding adequate resources to support assessment efforts.

The AAAC has communicated information about assessment progress via discussion with various university groups, including the University Planning Council and the North Central Association Steering Committee. The Director of the AAAC is in the process of writing an article on the challenges often encountered in assessment and how those challenges might be addressed.

The other major assessment-related activity for 2002-2003 concerns the general education learning outcomes, particularly as those skills are meant to be addressed by General Education 101 University Seminar. Discussions involving the AAAC and the General Education Committee (GEC) and feedback from a number of University Seminar instructors indicated that there is a great deal of variation in what different sections of the seminar address. This makes it nearly impossible to use the seminar as a mechanism for baseline data collection for the general education learning outcomes of critical thinking, effective written communication, effective oral communication, and teamwork. The variation amongst sections, along with the difficulty of finding adequate numbers of faculty to serve as instructors, suggested that the seminar be dropped as a graduation requirement effective with the Fall 2003 entering class. The General Education Committee unanimously supported this proposal, which was taken to the faculty senate in Spring 2003. The Senate unanimously approved the proposal to drop the University Seminar as a university requirement.

Currently, the GEC is working with the AAAC to identify both core skills/competencies that should form part of the General Education curriculum and to identify assessment methods. In addition to the above-mentioned General Education skills, the two committees have discussed such issues as university citizenship and socialization to university life. The two committees will also continue to discuss various ways students can acquire those skills throughout their UW – Parkside experience given that the seminar will no longer be required.

Assessment Goals for 2003-2004

(1) The AAAC will follow up with selected departments to discuss their assessment progress. Given the success of this initial effort during 2000-2001 and again during 2002-2003, the AAAC considers it essential to regularly visit with departments. In addition to the support from the AAAC, it is anticipated that departments may benefit from some collaboration – e.g., reviewing plans, discussing the implementation of program changes, etc. To accomplish this, the AAAC will explore the possibility of “brown bag” sessions, where participants can discuss a variety of assessment topics, as well as other mechanisms for sharing information about assessment. As ongoing assessment of student learning becomes increasingly important in resource allocation decisions, it is critical that departments and programs be strongly encouraged to remain actively engaged in the process of assessment and continuous improvement of programs.

(2) The AAAC and the GEC will continue to explore ways to infuse the basic General Education learning outcomes (critical thinking, effective writing, effective oral communication, and teamwork) throughout the curriculum. As a starting point, the AAAC will review all assessment plans to monitor the extent to which these general education learning outcomes are included in departmental assessment plans. This will, ideally, provide an effective starting point for reviewing samples of student work collected in various departments.

(3) The AAAC and the GEC will review samples of student learning for the various General Education learning outcomes to discuss the range of student performance. Ideally, this information can then be discussed with various departments to determine the extent to which the General Education courses are appropriately addressing (or at least introducing) learning outcomes which are further addressed by the majors.

(4) The AAAC and the GEC will explore viable ways to collect and report to the UW System data on verbal and quantitative skills.