In this article, Julia So discusses the purpose of program assessment, four common missteps of program assessment and reporting, and how to prevent them. The four common missteps of program assessment and reporting she has observed are: (1) unclear or ambiguous program goals; (2) measurement error of program goals and outcomes; (3) incorrect unit…

Assessment practices at Sinclair Community College have evolved since the early 1980s to a highly sophisticated set of processes that begin with the collection, analysis, and documentation of general education and program outcomes data and result in course and program improvements. A continuing challenge has been the development of new full-time…

This article describes how St. Louis Community College has created a culture of action using mission-based assessment. By directly linking assessment processes to mission areas such as transfer education, the college has created a central, unifying theme for assessment. Because the mission is everyone's business, assessment in turn becomes…

Frederick Community College's assessment of student learning within student affairs has evolved as a result of the confluence of three transformative initiatives: (1) the institution's decision to shape itself into a learning college; (2) the revision of accreditation standards, placing increased emphasis on institutional assessment and assessment…

Many people know the myth of Sisyphus, the ancient king who committed an offense against the gods and was condemned for an eternity to roll a boulder unsuccessfully to the top of a steep hill. Each time he reached the summit, the boulder, of its own weight, would roll back to the bottom, whereupon Sisyphus would have to begin laboriously rolling…

Accountability efforts at California's community colleges gained prominence in the 1990s under an agreement known as Partnership for Excellence (PFE) that involved the chancellor's office, the legislature, and the governor's office. This agreement was the first wide-ranging accountability effort undertaken by the state's community college system.…

The author is an outgoing faculty chair of the college assessment committee (CAC) at Moravian College. In this article, he shares the learned principles and constructive practices that guided his ten years of successful progress in fostering assessment: (1) Assessment must be part of the strategic plan; (2) Assessment language must be consistently…

During the 2006 fall semester, Nashville State Technical Community College (NSCC) completed a review of its general education program, including assessment of student success. A major advantage in assessing general education is that a number of measures are available for this purpose. A major disadvantage is that these measures rarely can be tied…

The college president's role in supporting and promoting student learning outcomes and institutional assessment is a herculean one. At Guam Community College (GCC), the president has been performing a crucial role in setting an assessment example for the rest of the college community since he took office on June 16, 2001. Seeking to model an…

Like many institutions, Santa Fe Community College (SFCC) has struggled to move beyond anecdotal sketches of student experiences to a more detailed picture of student engagement supported by methodically and systematically collected quantitative data. In 2004, as part of its ongoing commitment to data-informed or data-based decision making, the…

While assessment of student learning outcomes has become standard operating procedure on virtually every campus, the driving forces for pursuing assessment remain primarily external. For that to change, campuses must evolve toward a culture of assessment based on the shared values and expectations that arise out of a community. The first step in…

When a college or university needs an assessment instrument, it has two choices: select an existing instrument or develop a new one. Since the cost of instrument development in both time and human resources is often prohibitive, many assessment programs rely on existing instruments. The challenge then becomes choosing one that provides the best…

Faculty at The University of Akron Wayne College, the two-year regional branch campus of the University of Akron, developed and implemented a plan to assess student learning in 1997. The plan was based on an embedded outcomes model, linking course-level student learning outcomes to program outcomes for each of six technical associate degree…

Blue Ridge Community College (BRCC) and James Madison University (JMU) in Virginia are longtime transfer partners. Almost 85 percent of BRCC's transfer students transfer to JMU. An articulation agreement between the two institutions guarantees admission to JMU with junior status to BRCC Associate in Arts and Sciences graduates who have a grade…

During the spring semesters of 1999 through 2003, the general education subcommittee of Oakton Community College's (Des Plaines, Illinois) Student Academic Assessment Team (SAAT) implemented a locally developed institutional approach for assessing students' achievement of general education objectives. The overall process remained essentially the…