This book is about student success and how to support and improve it. It takes as its point of departure that we--as faculty, assessment directors, student affairs professionals, and staff--reflect together in a purposeful and informed way about how our teaching, curricula, the co-curriculum, and assessment work in concert to support and improve student learning and success. It also requires that we do so in collaboration with our colleagues and our students for the rich insights that we gain from them. Conversational in style, this book offers a wide variety of illustrations of how your peers are putting assessment into practice in ways that are meaningful to them and their institutions, and that lead to improved student learning. The authors provide rich guidance for activities ranging from everyday classroom teaching and assessment to using assessment to improve programs and entire institutions. The authors envisage individual faculty at four-year institutions and community colleges as their main audience, whether those faculty are focused on their own classes or support their colleagues through leadership roles in assessment. If you plan to remain focused on your own courses and students, you will find that those sections of this book will help you better understand why and how assessment leaders do what they do, which in turn will make your participation in assessment more engaging and increase your expertise in facilitating student learning. Because the authors also aim to strengthen connections between the curriculum and co-curriculum and include examples of co-curricular assessment, student affairs professionals and staff interested in doing the same will also find ideas in this book relevant to their work. Opening with a chapter on equity in assessment practice, so critical to learning from and benefitting our diverse students, the authors guide you through the development and use of learning outcomes, the design of assignments with attention to clear prompts and rubrics, and the achievement of alignment and coherence in pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment to better support student engagement, achievement and success. The chapter on using student evidence for improvement offers support, resources, and recommendations for doing so, and demonstrates exciting uses of student wisdom. The book concludes by emphasizing the importance of reflection in assessment practices--offering powerful examples and strategies for professional development--and by describing appropriate, creative, and effective approaches for communicating assessment information with attention to purpose and audience.

The authors--a once-skeptical chemistry professor and a director of assessment sensitive to the concerns of her teacher colleagues--use a personal voice to describe the basics of outcomes-based assessment. The purpose of the book is to empower faculty to develop and maintain ownership of assessment by articulating the learning outcomes and evidence of learning that are appropriate for their courses and programs. The authors offer readers a guide to the not always tidy process of articulating expectations, defining criteria and standards, and aligning course content consistently with desired outcomes. The wealth of examples and stories, including accounts of successes and false starts, provide a realistic and honest guide to what's involved in the institutionalization of assessment.

This book is about student success and how to support and improve it. It takes as its point of departure that we--as faculty, assessment directors, student affairs professionals, and staff--reflect together in a purposeful and informed way about how our teaching, curricula, the co-curriculum, and assessment work in concert to support and improve student learning and success. It also requires that we do so in collaboration with our colleagues and our students for the rich insights that we gain from them. Conversational in style, this book offers a wide variety of illustrations of how your peers are putting assessment into practice in ways that are meaningful to them and their institutions, and that lead to improved student learning. The authors provide rich guidance for activities ranging from everyday classroom teaching and assessment to using assessment to improve programs and entire institutions. The authors envisage individual faculty at four-year institutions and community colleges as their main audience, whether those faculty are focused on their own classes or support their colleagues through leadership roles in assessment. If you plan to remain focused on your own courses and students, you will find that those sections of this book will help you better understand why and how assessment leaders do what they do, which in turn will make your participation in assessment more engaging and increase your expertise in facilitating student learning. Because the authors also aim to strengthen connections between the curriculum and co-curriculum and include examples of co-curricular assessment, student affairs professionals and staff interested in doing the same will also find ideas in this book relevant to their work. Opening with a chapter on equity in assessment practice, so critical to learning from and benefitting our diverse students, the authors guide you through the development and use of learning outcomes, the design of assignments with attention to clear prompts and rubrics, and the achievement of alignment and coherence in pedagogy, curriculum, and assessment to better support student engagement, achievement and success. The chapter on using student evidence for improvement offers support, resources, and recommendations for doing so, and demonstrates exciting uses of student wisdom. The book concludes by emphasizing the importance of reflection in assessment practices--offering powerful examples and strategies for professional development--and by describing appropriate, creative, and effective approaches for communicating assessment information with attention to purpose and audience.

The authors--a once-skeptical chemistry professor and a director of assessment sensitive to the concerns of her teacher colleagues--use a personal voice to describe the basics of outcomes-based assessment. The purpose of the book is to empower faculty to develop and maintain ownership of assessment by articulating the learning outcomes and evidence of learning that are appropriate for their courses and programs. The authors offer readers a guide to the not always tidy process of articulating expectations, defining criteria and standards, and aligning course content consistently with desired outcomes. The wealth of examples and stories, including accounts of successes and false starts, provide a realistic and honest guide to what's involved in the institutionalization of assessment.

This book demonstrates how a participatory approach to assessment and accreditation in their new forms creates a synergy for learner-centered education. It is a guide to approaching the accreditation process from a campus-wide perspective of ownership - illustrated by rich descriptions of how faculty, students, and administrators at California State University Monterey Bay (CUSMB) engaged with and successfully focused their accreditation processes on the improvement of their practices. The approach that the authors describe was driven by a commitment to go beyond satisfying the accreditation expectations so as to promote ongoing and long-term improvement of student learning. It also reflects the shift of responsibility for assessment within institutions from a designated office to individual faculty and staff, entire departments, and the campus as a whole. The authors document strategies that are practical - ready to use or adapt - that are appropriate for all campuses. They also provide guidelines for the documentation process that accreditation demands. They demonstrate how they reduced traditional resistance to assessment by emphasizing its use for the improvement of student learning, helping faculty with their own teaching, and creating frameworks for continuing improvements that are valued by faculty. The authors emphasize the need for every institution to take into account its unique mission, vision, and core values; and to recognize the importance of individual departmental cultures. Although their accreditation ""triggered"" CSUMB's engagement with assessment, the authors discuss other opportunities for jump-starting the process.