ASSESSMENT TASKFORCE

MINUTES OF THE Mar. 10, 1999 MEETING

PRESENT: W. Fogleman (Chair), J. Kulig, C. LeBlanc, M. McNeil, L. Reitsma.

Chair explained that he had contacted the Dean’s Office to get the list of official "comparative institutions." There are fifteen of them. A letter will be sent to each requesting information on their assessment activities.

Chair has also sent letters to Department Chairs, the Dean of Student Affairs and the Registrar asking them for summaries of any outcomes assessment activities carried out in the last 5-10 years. It is hoped the taskforce can have its survey completed by the end of April this year.

Chair distributed "The Principles of Good Practice for Assessing Students Learning" developed by the Assessment Forum of the American Association for Higher Education.

Chair will develop a bibliography of reports and materials he has in his assessment file cabinet as well as relevant materials in Lamson Library.

Pursuant to soliciting faculty and staff input on PSC learning outcomes which should be assessed, the taskforce members agreed to compile their own lists of such outcomes (objectives) and forward them to Fogleman before Spring Break. Chair will also ask the General Education and Academic Standard Committees, the First Year Experience Taskforce and the Curriculum Study Group for similar lists. These lists will be used to devise a set of possible outcomes PSC should be assessing with the idea of sending the set to every faculty member and academic/residential life staff. Faculty and staff would be asked to react (by the end of April) to the set and to suggest other outcomes which might not have been suggested in the first round. After analyzing all input, the taskforce would then make a report to the faculty and determine whether a Faculty Forum in the fall might be useful to allow further discussion. Our goal is to assure that any recommendations eventually made have broad support.

 

The next meeting is scheduled for April 14 at 11:15 am in the Room 202 of Lamson, the "Upper Tower Room."