Academic Achievement Assessment Committee
Minutes from November 5, 1999

The academic achievement assessment committee met on Friday, Nov. 5th at noon in Moln 323. Present were Sue Norton, chair, Larry Duetsch, Herb Colston, Diana Sharp, Donna Carr, and Dwayne Olsen.

The committee discussed the five general education objectives and their relationship to the 1990 senate document on assessment. Larry also provided a course-by-course summary of general education objectives that are ostensibly included in the three categories of general education courses. The committee decided, at the suggestion of Pat Goldsmith, to ask instructors of those courses to complete a checklist on writing and critical thinking. The expectation is that this will provide some guidance to instructors in terms of what constitutes writing requirements (e.g., in-class essay exams versus a substantial research paper), what
constitutes critical thinking, etc. and will help the AAAC focus data collection efforts. Sue will develop a draft of such a checklist and an overview letter for instructors, which initially will be circulated in draft form to AAAC members. The letter and checklist will then be sent to a small group of instructors as a pilot effort and will include a copy of the chancellor's letter on assessment. The AAAC expects to have this distributed by early December with a deadline of Feb. 1 for responses.

The committee discussed the next phase of data collection and determined that oral communication and information literacy would be appropriate. It is expected, again, that a range of standards will be found, and data collection will focus on the more substantive requirements -- e.g., data on formal in-class presentations rather than on class participation. Here again, the aaac will provide a structured checklist rather than simply ask instructors "what kind of oral communication requirements are part of your
course."

Committee members were asked to provide any additional comments on the draft of the 1998-99 report. Finally, a draft of an assessment policy was distributed, and committee members were encouraged to review the draft and provide comments.

The meeting adjourned at 12:50

Sue Norton
Associate Professor
Human Resource Management
UW-Parkside