Submitted Fall, 2005
Assessment of the Assessment Process
As a part of the writing of this report, the quality of the Assessment Plan and Process was also considered. Key questions included:
- Are the desired outcomes for the graduates of our department relevant and defensible?
- Does the current means of assessing actually assess the department’s desired outcomes for graduates and provide information that allows for the continuous improvement of our program?
- Is the scope and focus of our assessment process reasonable?
- Do we need to discontinue or add any assessment activities?
Four recommendations relative to the assessment process were identified:
- The Department will consider alternative strategies for administering the Exit Alumni/Graduate Survey. The overall rate of return of 40% is unacceptable. In part, the low return rate probably reflected technical problems with administration of the Alumni Survey; the first dissemination failed to be delivered to all teachers working in ESU #15 (this includes most teachers in the SW Cohort).
- The Department will reexamine the content / validity of the Critical Friends Survey. Some principals indicated that they “did not know/had not observed” some areas featured in the survey. If we are to continue to survey principals, we need to have a more clear vision of what principals reasonably might know about the attitudes, knowledge, and skills of CI Program graduates.
- The Department should retain key elements of this assessment plan; the data will be more illuminating when we are able to make comparisons across cohorts and years.
- The Department will consider / adopt strategies which more effectively teach/instill the 10 Desired Outcomes for Graduates throughout the Curriculum and Instruction Program.
- In the COE, the 10 Desired Outcomes are the backbone for assessment.
- One probable step will to study the degree to which the Department Graduate Program Objectives and the CI – specific Objectives are aligned with, and supportive, of the Desired Outcomes.